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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24114004">Build Our Own Higher Ground</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwouldgetaniguana/pseuds/iwouldgetaniguana'>iwouldgetaniguana</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Catra (She-Ra) Redemption fics [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5 DAYS TO GO I DID THIS TO MYSELF LET’S DO THIS!, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Catra and Glimmer escape, Discussions of abuse, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Gen, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, So please read with caution, apparently my descriptions of viscerally-experienced emotions can be distressing, but fun things too!, hope and love, implied/referenced trauma, love at the end of all things!, not beta read but let’s all stay alive, romantic sunsets!, the power of FRIENDSHIP!, there is also Lore and some Plot and a lot of Feelings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:29:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>26,397</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24114004</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwouldgetaniguana/pseuds/iwouldgetaniguana</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Catra’s here, in the Castle. She and Glimmer crashed a small, unfamiliar spaceship the Whispering Woods. No injuries. Glimmer’s fine. Catra was escorted to the spare room and placed in a magic containment circle.</p>
<p>Which is why Adora’s back here, in the middle of the night. To check that their prisoner is secure.</p>
<p>“Guarding me yourself?” Catra asks without opening her eyes, and Adora tenses. Catra rolls onto her back and stretches, arms reaching and back bending. She doesn’t look at Adora. Adora can’t look away from her. “Don’t you trust Sparkles’ spellcasting?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adora/Catra (She-Ra)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Catra (She-Ra) Redemption fics [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739890</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>457</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>honest-to-god i only wanted to write a cute catradora happy-ending kiss i don’t know what happened but then it was already half-done, and then corona virus hit so I lost focus, and then the release date was announced and there WASN’T ENOUGH TIME BUT WHAT THE HECK so here watch me add a rushed End of Catra’s Redemption Arc to my <a>Beginning of Catra’s Redeption Arc</a> without having written anything for the Middllllleeeeeeee (or even necessarily tying them togetheeeerrrrr...)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>For something to be confirmed, it must be checked three times.</em>
</p><p>That’s what’s written in the Horde’s cadet training manual. Check your supplies, check your weapon’s voltage, check for your exit; double check, and then triple check. Check something three times to confirm it, and then proceed. The Horde may be wrong about most things, but they were right about training, and this particular rule has never let Adora down. She checks things three times.</p><p>Like this: Catra’s here, in the Castle. She and Glimmer crashed a small, unfamiliar spaceship the Whispering Woods. No injuries. Glimmer’s fine. Catra was escorted to the spare room and placed in a magic containment circle. <em>One.</em></p><p>Glimmer was barraged with questions from the Princesses, but was too exhausted to tell them more than the basics; she and Catra were captured by Horde Prime, the opponent that the Princesses have been eyeing warily since his ships appeared on their horizons; Glimmer and Catra got out in a stolen pod; she and Catra have intel that can help the Rebellion when Horde Prime mounts his attack. On her way back to her room, Adora had passed by the spare room – guards on either side, circle glowing and unbroken, Catra sitting on the floor, staring at her hands. <em>Two.</em></p><p>Glimmer had caught her.</p><p>
  <em>“I think we can trust her, Adora,” she’d said. “I don’t think she wants Etheria destroyed any more than we do.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s what I used to say!” spluttered Adora. “And you never believed me!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Well, I didn’t see –”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“And you were right!” Adora continued. “I should have listened but I – please, Glimmer, listen to me this time. I tried so many times to make Catra see that what she was doing was wrong but she just kept –”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s just it, Adora,” Glimmer said, looking down and clutching Adora’s hands in hers. “When I was making all those bad decisions...I know I should have listened to you, but I didn’t and – and I didn’t realize why I should have until I was facing the consequences myself.”</em>
</p><p><em>Adora shook her off. “Catra’s been neck-deep in consequences for ages!” she hissed. “She stayed with the Horde even after she saw what they were doing, she helped, she made everything </em>worse<em> –”</em></p><p>
  <em>“And I’m not saying she didn’t!” Glimmer rushed to say. “Or that her helping us now will erase any of what she did. I’m just saying...that there was a reason it took her so long to figure it out. But I really think she has, now.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“She’s tricking you!” Adora insisted. “That’s what she does.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Glimmer shook her head. “She’s never been as good at tricking the rest of us as she was at tricking you, Adora,” she said gently.</em>
</p><p>
  <em> Adora took a step back. “I don’t...” she stammered.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m not asking you to forgive her,” Glimmer continued. “I’m saying that we need her help to take out Horde Prime, and that we can trust her with that, at least.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Adora crossed her arms around her middle.</em>
</p><p><em>“Adora,” Glimmer reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m not making this decision without you, ok? Not anymore. I get what you’re saying and if – You know Catra best, so if you </em>really think<em> she has a way to betray us, we won’t risk it. But please listen to me when I say I think at this point, with everything we’re facing, it’s worth the risk.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Can I have some time to think about it?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Of course.”</em>
</p><p>Which is why Adora is back here at the spare room, in the middle of the night. To check a third time that their prisoner is secure.</p><p>Adora passes the guards and steps into the room, sitting on the floor against the wall, and stares across the grand, dimly lit room at the person she used to know better than anyone else.</p><p>Catra’s lying curled up on the purple-backed chaise, the blue light from Glimmer’s containment spell casting shadows across her face, outlining the crease between her eyes that’s never eased, even in sleep. She’s still wearing her new, Horde-styled black and red jumpsuit. And she’s not snoring.</p><p>“Guarding me yourself?” Catra asks without opening her eyes, and Adora tenses. Catra rolls onto her back and stretches, arms reaching and back bending. She doesn’t look at Adora. Adora can’t look away from her. “Don’t you trust Sparkles’ spellcasting? Go get some sleep.”</p><p>Adora glares at her. “I can’t.”</p><p>Catra sighs and dangles her legs over the chaise. “Because Horde Prime could attack and any moment or because you think I’ll murder you in your sleep?”</p><p>“Would you have?” Adora snips. “Doesn’t seem very you, getting it over with so quickly.”</p><p>Catra’s tail twitches. “I wouldn’t have,” she whispers. “I wouldn’t have hurt you, not like that.”</p><p>“Hurt me?” Adora cracks a laugh. It sounds like something breaking. “You hurt me <em>dozens</em> of times, Catra. I still have scars on my back from the Battle of Bright Moon. I still have <em>nightmares</em> about being infected with that First Ones virus, and I lost the only real parent I ever had when you opened that portal.”</p><p>Catra’s ears droop. She bites her lip, but doesn’t say anything. And she doesn’t look at Adora.</p><p>And Adora waits for her to do – <em>something</em>, but Catra just sits there, not looking at Adora.</p><p>“You can’t even begin to count the number of ways you’ve hurt me,” Adora growls.</p><p>Catra does nothing.</p><p>The next thing Adora knows she’s on her feet, standing right outside of the containment spell’s ring, slamming her hand against the barrier. “Say something!” she screams.</p><p>Catra startles. Looks – <em>glances</em> – at Adora but then away. “Like what. What could I possibly say? You’re right.”</p><p>“Tell me <em>why</em>,” Adora pants. “<em>Why</em> did you hurt me, <em>why</em> wasn’t it enough all those times I tried to bring you to our side, to bring you with me? Why was it that you were so mad at me for leaving you, but then I wasn’t enough for you anymore?”</p><p>Catra blinks and goes completely still, in that way only Catra has ever been capable of doing. All Adora can hear is her own breathing. There are tears on her face and she doesn’t know how they got there.</p><p>Finally, Catra says, “I didn’t know you felt that way.”</p><p>“Wha –” Adora’s breath hitches. “Yes, you did! I told you a hundred times!”</p><p>“No,” Catra shakes her head, tone going hard, “No you didn’t. You told me <em>I </em>wasn’t enough anymore.”</p><p>Adora steps back as if Catra’s slapped her.</p><p>Catra <em>has</em> slapped her, before.</p><p>“Wait.” Catra reaches out, still on the other side of the barrier, voice suddenly shaking. “No, I’m sorry, I messed that up, I –”</p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry.</em>
</p><p>It rocks through Adora, Catra’s shaking voice tumbling down into her. It reaches down her throat and pulls at her stomach so that she feels like she’s going to be sick. She spins on her heel and leaves, running, she’s running –</p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry.</em>
</p><p>And it hadn’t even been for the right thing.</p><p>^*^</p><p>Adora keeps smacking the dummy with her practice sword, but all she sees is Catra. Catra, claws out, coming for her throat; Catra, weaving around her to scratch her where she’s weakest; Catra, poking her finger into the middle of Adora’s forehead with a sneer.</p><p>
  <em>You’d never have the guts.</em>
</p><p>Adora screams and hits the dummy’s head so hard it rips off and goes flying, landing with a muffled crash in a bush on the other side of the training grounds.</p><p><em>Catra, scrambling away from her in the snow: Adora, </em>wait<em> –</em></p><p>Gasping, Adora drops the sword and falls to her knees, panting at the ground. The grass is blurs in front of her as she digs her fingers into it. “You’re wrong,” she grunts, wiping at her eyes. “That’s not what strength is. It never was. You’re <em>wrong</em>.”</p><p>“Adora?”</p><p>Adora whips her head up towards the voice, but it’s Bow. Just Bow.</p><p>“So, I brought you some tea,” starts Bow, kneeling to sit down next to Adora. He holds a decorated teacup out towards her. “I thought maybe you could use a break from training. It’s lavender,” he adds as she takes the cup. He smiles in that kind way that means she’s definitely supposed to know why lavender would be helpful.</p><p>She doesn’t.</p><p>She sits back on her heels. She opens her mouth to say thank you but what comes out of her mouth is, “Do <em>you</em> think we can trust Catra?”</p><p>Bow glances back towards the castle. “Honestly? I have no idea. She’s <em>really</em> wily. And I know at the pass, when we took it back from the Horde, and it turned out Catra wasn’t there? Well, I can you see why you were afraid that she would be.”</p><p><em>Afraid</em>. Adora’s throat tightens with it. “She could be planning<em> anything</em>, Bow. Who knows what happened with her in space! She could be in league with Horde Prime! She could be here just to press all my buttons and distract me while someone else does something awful! But apparently she’s our best chance to save the world?” Adora leans back and crosses her legs under her, tearing blades of grass out of the lawn, which she probably shouldn’t do, because the Royal Gardeners must have worked so hard....</p><p>“We’re all a lot stronger than we used to be,” Bow reasons. “And hey – you’ve been hoping all along that Catra would come to our side, right? I mean, I think you’re right to be suspicious. I just want to remind you that this could be a good thing.”</p><p>Adora shakes her head. “I’ve already let her go. I can’t hold out hope for that now.”</p><p>“Right,” says Bow. “And I know that took a lot of strength, and I’m really proud of you –”</p><p>“Where are you going with this, Bow?”</p><p>Bow sighs and puts a hand on her arm. “Catra’s personal growth is not necessarily connected to your personal growth. The timing may be bad, but...You don’t have to forgive her. Or let her back into your life. But how you feel about her doesn’t really affect where <em>she’s</em> at right now.”</p><p>And Adora can only stare at him, because of course, that makes perfect sense, that’s how people work, but....</p><p>
  <em>But.</em>
</p><p>A shadow falls over them.</p><p>“More troubles within the Rebellion?” Shadow Weaver asks. “It’s a wonder you ever managed to keep the Horde at bay this long.”</p><p>Adora stands, straight up with her arms at her side, a reflex. She grits her teeth. “We weren’t asking you.”</p><p>Shadow Weaver’s eyes narrow. “I know Catra better than anyone, Adora, even you. If you want my advice –”</p><p>“We don’t,” Adora snaps, turning on her heel.</p><p>“But –” Bow starts, so Adora grabs his arm and drags him along behind her as she marches away.</p><p>“You’ll need me eventually, Adora,” Shadow Weaver calls after her. “You’re too attached to deal with Catra yourself. If you’re not careful, you’ll slip into old patterns.”</p><p>Adora rounds on her. “My <em>old patterns</em> were believing what you told me and letting you make all my decisions. And I <em>won’t</em> fall into them again.”</p><p>“If you cannot see the threat Catra poses –”</p><p>“I thought Catra was a  good-for-nothing layabout who didn’t have the potential to threaten anything,” Adora snarls, and Shadow Weaver pauses. Hesitates. Adora’s never seen that before. “Hah,” she says, humourless, “I guess she showed us, huh?”</p><p>And she turns away again and stomps up the castle steps, bringing Bow with her.</p><p>“Adora –” Bow starts.</p><p> “No,” Adora mutters, storming down the halls. <em>No.</em></p><p>“‘No,’ what, Adora?”</p><p>Adora doesn’t answer, just keeps walking them back to...to Catra’s room. But she doesn’t need to be here, because she already checked three times. Catra’s in there. It’s been confirmed.</p><p>Bow puts a hand on her shoulder. “‘No’, <em>what</em>, Adora?”</p><p>“Just,” Adora puts her hands to her temples. She’s breathing hard. Her heart’s still racing from the training. “Promise me you won’t go to Shadow Weaver, Bow, she’s poisonous, she’s manipulative, she’ll –”</p><p>“I know,” Bow assures her, rubbing at her arm. “I wasn’t going to. I just wanted to ask if you were okay.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Adora says, dropping her hands. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’ll just go...check the armoury.” And she walks off in that direction, even though it means going in the opposite direction she’s just come. “I’ll talk to you later.”</p><p>“Okay...” Bow says. He doesn’t sound convinced, but he does let her go.</p><p>*^*</p><p>They have a war council that evening, the night after Glimmer and Catra reappeared. The Princesses have never looked so tense. Perfuma’s not even trying her meditating, is instead twisting a strand of her hair around and around her fist. Frosta keeps sending Mermista worried glances, and Mermista keeps looking like she’s about to kill someone. Entrapta has her welding mask down. Scorpia can’t keep still, tapping the tips of her claws incessantly against the table. Only Spinnerella and Netossa look composed, and Adora caught a look at their hands, clasped tightly together underneath the table, as she came in.</p><p>And Adora...has imagined Catra sitting with her at the Princess Alliance’s War Table so many times, but now, sitting opposite her, looking at her in her black and red jumpsuit with her hackles raised and her head down, Adora wants to vomit.</p><p>“So,” Gimmer says, clapping her hands together loudly. “I’ve been brought up to speed on what’s been happening since I’ve been gone.” She spares a grateful nod to Frosta, who nods back proudly. “You’ve all been amazing – I can’t thank you enough for keeping Brightmoon safe.”</p><p>“It’s not been easy,” Perfuma protests. “More and more refugees are entering my kingdom, but we can’t even keep the borders safe from rogue Horde soldiers!”</p><p>“Some of those soldiers are forming small bandit groups,” Netossa adds, more calmly, “but it looks like Hordak kept power pretty centralized –” Adora looks back at Catra, but Catra doesn’t lift her head – “There are no large factions of ex-soldiers, just lots and lots of rogues. Some of them are taking what they can, some of them are running, but all of them are causing chaos.”</p><p>Mermista points at Glimmer. “<em>Please</em> tell us you brought back some amazing intel from the Primus Ship, or whatever.”</p><p>“Well,” Glimmer takes a deep breath. “I know his plan to destroy the planet. So, with that knowledge, we can come up with a plan to stop it!”</p><p>“What?” Frosta shrieks.</p><p>“Destroy the planet?” Entrapta yelps. “But that would destroy the Heart! Surely that’s reason enough for him not to – oh,” she says, sagging, “that’s it, isn’t it? He’s going to use the planet as a weapon and it’s going to kill us all.”</p><p>“Not if we can stop him first,” Glimmer contends. All around the table, Princesses fidget. Even Bow can’t stop playing with his hands.</p><p>“Is that why we haven’t kicked <em>her</em> out yet?” Mermista scoffs, glaring in Catra’s direction. “We’re going to like, use her as bait or something?”</p><p>“No,” Glimmer says, firm. “She’s here as an ally. She helped me escape! And she can help us come up with a plan to defeat Horde Prime. He trusted her with valuable information that could help us –”</p><p>“Right,” Mermista says. “Unless she made a deal with him to give us false information! She could be selling us out to ensure her own survival.”</p><p>Though Catra doesn’t visibly move, Adora can hear the faint, soft scrape of what she knows to be Catra’s claws digging into something. But Catra doesn’t say anything.</p><p>“Catra’s not going to do that,” Glimmer says.</p><p>“How do you know?” Perfuma asks. “After everything she’s done, how can you possibly –”</p><p>“Oh!” Frosta interrupts. “Did you cast that truth spell on her? Are you sure it worked this time?”</p><p>“I, um,” Glimmer stammers. “I didn’t try it at all, actually.”</p><p>Spinnerella and Netossa share a worried glance. “So you’re just taking her word for it?” Spinnerella asks. She doesn’t sound accusatory, which is somehow worse.</p><p>Glimmer looks down at the table. “Yes.”</p><p>“If...you’re worried about it being like before...” Frosta stops as she sees Glimmer’s mouth twist, and Adora’s stomach twists right along with it.</p><p>
  <em>I wasn’t going to actually hurt him!</em>
</p><p>“What about your Dad?” Frosta continues. “He was able to hold his own against even Shadow Weaver. We could ask him to come in here –”</p><p>“No,” Glimmer says, firm.</p><p>Everyone stills.</p><p>“No?” Mermista growls, leaning forward. “You’re just, what, giving her a pass because you were prisoner buddies together?”</p><p>Glimmer glances at Catra, and Catra moves, for the first time, to meet her gaze. “I don’t do Truth Spells anymore,” Glimmer admits.</p><p>“What do you mean?” Bow asks, shooting a look at Adora. “Glimmer, you still haven’t told us a lot about what happened to you on Horde Prime’s ship. Did something happen to –”</p><p>“I just!” Glimmer clenches her fists. “Don’t. Do those anymore. You don’t need to know the details.”</p><p>“You just <em>don’t</em>?” Mermista snarls.</p><p>“Glimmer,” Bow presses.</p><p>“Just stop!” Glimmer sobs, banging her hands on the table. “Just leave it alone!”</p><p>Adora’s throat clenches, like it’s being squeezed. She reaches out to Glimmer –</p><p>But Catra gets there first. Just places the tips of her fingers on top of the tips of Glimmer’s fingers, and Glimmer lets out a rattling breath, curling her hand up so that she’s holding Catra’s fingers between hers.</p><p>“Look,” Glimmer says. “Being on Horde Prime’s ship – it was awful. None of you were there, you don’t know...but <em>she</em> was.” She jerks her chin at Catra. “We only got out of there by working together. We needed to trust each other, and we did, and here we are. So.”</p><p>The phantom hand gripping Adora’s throat tightens. She puts a hand to her diaphragm and tries to remember...<em>deep breaths from the abdomen increase the flow of blood and oxygen throughout the body....</em></p><p>“That doesn’t prove anything,” Mermista says, voice stilted.</p><p>“Nothing can <em>prove anything</em>!” Glimmer exclaims. “Not when Horde Prime can control his army with his <em>mind</em>. This is something we’re going to have to take on faith.”</p><p>“Faith in what?” Perfuma asks, voice trembling. “Last time we operated solely on trust, you ignored all of our warnings and brought us out of Despondos, and here we are, right in the middle of hostile territory!”</p><p>“And now I’m trying to fix that!” Glimmer pleads.</p><p>“You think you can fix having a new, even worse enemy by bringing in an old one?” Mermista asks. “She attacked us over and over again!”</p><p>Adora’s breaths come in shallow, straining to get past her closed throat.</p><p>“So did Scorpia!” Glimmer argues. “And look at her now!”</p><p>“Oh,” Scorpia says, shrinking back, “please don’t bring me into this –”</p><p>“Scorpia wasn’t leading them!” Mermista shouts. “She didn’t raze my Kingdom to the ground, and then try to do the same to the rest of Etheria!”</p><p>“Well, she did help the Horde invade <em>my</em> kingdom –” Frosta points out.</p><p>“It isn’t the same! Don’t even try to pretend having a <em>party </em>crashed is the same as losing your kingdom!”</p><p>Adora’s vision starts to go fuzzy at the edges.</p><p>“Well as someone whose kingdom was invaded before <em>all</em> of yours, I think we need a better way to evaluate potential allies,” Perfuma huffs.  “Yes, Scorpia has proven herself, despite all the times she fought against us. Entrapta is here too, and we need her, but she was the one who hacked the Black Garnet and started this whole mess in the <em>first place</em> –”</p><p>“And I still haven’t forgiven her for it,” Mermista glowers.</p><p>Perfuma throws her arms out. “So aren’t we doomed either way? Entrapta’s the only one who understands how the Heart works, and if Catra’s the only one –”</p><p>“We just need information from her,” Frosta points out. “We don’t have to let her help –”</p><p>“There is no way I’m trusting a single word from that manipulative, cowardly – ”</p><p>“Stop it!” Adora yells, getting to her feet. Her head spins and she grips the table-edge to keep from falling down. Bow puts a supporting hand in her back. “We can’t,” she chokes out, “we can’t do this.”</p><p>Everyone is silent a moment.</p><p>“Adora’s right,” Catra says, and all eyes snap to her. Catra’s fur is still hackled, and her shoulders are still tight, but her chin has a determined set to it again. She’s not looking at Adora. “Fighting amongst yourselves won’t help you any. It’s how I beat you, every time: distract and divide, divide and conquer. I wouldn’t even have to lie to you to do it at this point. Trust me or not, but if you turn on each other now, Horde Prime’s plan will work.”</p><p>Mermista narrows her eyes. “You didn’t beat us last time, remember? We got wise to your tricks and repelled your forces from Brightmoon. For A <em>second</em> time.”</p><p>Catra’s eyebrows raise, almost a challenge. “Yeah? So act like it.”</p><p>Mermista jumps to her feet, face furious, but Glimmer puts her arms out. “Okay! Okay, just,” she glares at Catra. “If you want them to cooperate, can you not. Provoke them.”</p><p>And Catra, after a second, sits back in her chair and crosses her arms. “Fine,” she says. Just like that. Just like <em>that</em>. Adora’s throat squeezes again. She sits back down.</p><p>Glimmer lets out a breath. “Okay,” she repeats to the room at large. “It’s my fault Horde Prime is able to attack us. I know that. And it’s Catra’s fault that the Rebellion is in such bad shape. But how is keeping us from trying to fix our mistakes going to solve anything? If you guys have any other ideas for how we can fend off Horde Prime, I’ll listen to you, like I should have last time. But I need you to listen to me in return. Horde Prime is a greater threat than anything we’ve faced before, and we can’t hold out against him as we are now.”</p><p>Frosta draws herself up. “Well then: what <em>is </em>Horde Prime’s plan? How does he plan to take control of the Heart?”</p><p>Glimmer pauses. She looks to Catra – Catra nods and stands up, hands curled into fists are her sides. “He’s going to do exactly what I did. He’s going to try to hack the planet by using the power of one of the Runestones.”</p><p>“But we did that using my Runestone,” Scorpia says. She’s looking anywhere but at Catra. “Horde Prime doesn’t have one, does he?”</p><p>Catra lets her gaze slide off Scorpia, shaking her head. “He’s got some of Sparkle’s power. Queen Glimmer’s.”</p><p>“Uh, what does that mean?” Bow’s voice cracks, his head swiveling in Glimmer’s direction.</p><p>Glimmer looks down at the table, fidgeting with her hands. “Horde Prime...he siphoned off some of my power. Like Shadow Weaver did, except – well, except that I couldn’t use my powers myself while I was in space. I guess I was too far away from the Moonstone. But Horde Prime has these...” she breathes heavily, staring at the table.</p><p>Bow whimpers and clutches Glimmer’s shoulder. Adora reaches out to her, but Catra moves to stand next to Glimmer and glares at them like if anyone asks any follow-up questions, she’ll rip their throats out. Adora lets her hand fall.</p><p>“He has some pretty creepy tech,” Catra summarizes. “He was able to wipe Hordak’s memories in like, three seconds. And now Hordak’s going around doing Horde Prime’s biding like some sort of zombie.”</p><p>“What?” Entrapta murmurs.</p><p>“The point is,” Catra plows on, “Horde Prime has Sparkle’s power. We have to be prepared for his attempts to use that power to hack into the Heart of Etheria and activate it.”</p><p>Adora musters herself. “But the Heart needs the Sword. And I destroyed that.”</p><p>“You what?” Catra yelps. Without warning, her eyes are right on Adora, yellow and blue, focused like search lights, and Adora feels her skin prickle all over. “The Sword’s gone?”</p><p>“Oh,” Glimmer says. “Yeah. Apparently when we connected all the Runestones, Adora fought back against the Heart’s firing sequence and –”</p><p>“That’s bad,” Catra interrupts. “We need it.”</p><p>“I had to!” Adora snaps. Her whole body is shaking as she looks at Catra, but she can’t look away. “If the Heart had fired, the planet would have been destroyed!”</p><p>“The Heart can still be detonated without the trigger,” Catra explains. “Like a bomb. You said the Sword was a key; the key to unlock the portal, the weapon, the whole Heart. But it could have also been the key to keeping it all <em>locked</em>. You’re the Administrator or whatever, right? As long as you owned the Sword, there was a chance we could build a firewall against Horde Prime, but without it –”</p><p>“There are no defenses,” Entrapta supplies. “Anyone can have full access.”</p><p>“Anyone who can figure it out.” Catra confirms. Finally, her eyes leave Adora, landing on Entrapta. “Unless you know some other way to set up a defense system?”</p><p>A tentacle of Entrapta’s hair scratches under her chin. “Maybe. I was able to use the Black Garnet to hack into the Moonstone because the Runestones are all connected. And by working together, the Runestone Princesses have made that connection stronger. But if we <em>disconnect </em>them –”</p><p>“Horde Prime would only have access to the Moonstone,” Glimmer concludes. Her mouth is set in a firm line. “He wouldn’t be able to get to any of the others.”</p><p>“What? No,” Perfuma says. “Connecting our powers is the only thing that’s made us strong enough to stand up to the Horde! If we get rid of that, we don’t stand a chance.”</p><p>“If you <em>don’t</em> get rid of it, you won’t stand a chance,” Catra argues. “Your connection made you stronger because it was accessing the power of the Heart. But that Heart can be used against you if you don’t take it offline.”</p><p>Mermista crosses her arms, teeth gritted. “Or maybe you’re trying to trick us into making our powers weaker, so that Horde Prime can march on Etheria unopposed.”</p><p>“We wouldn’t be totally defenceless,” Frosta points out. “We’d still have the powers we had before the Princess Alliance.”</p><p>“And Horde Prime would still have Glimmer’s power,” Mermista counters. “If he figures out how to use it, even without the Heart...”</p><p>“I can get her power back,” says Catra.</p><p>Glimmer’s mouth falls open. “What?”</p><p>“How?” Adora asks, immediately.</p><p>Catra’s tail flicks. “I know where Horde Prime is keeping it. And I know how to get access. Sparkle’s power is in some sort of containment chamber that Horde Prime had to build special. If I can destroy it, it’ll set her power loose.”</p><p>“But would that return Glimmer’s power to her, or would the power just....disappear?” Bow asks.</p><p>Catra flinches, and looks at Glimmer for an answer.</p><p>Glimmer bites her lip. “I don’t know,” she admits.</p><p>“So that’s all you’ve got?” Mermista flings at Catra. “You’re here, and we’re supposed to give you a chance, just so you can tell us how to make ourselves <em>weaker</em>?”</p><p>Catra’s ears flick back. “I also have the schematics for a trans-atmospheric laser canon. Do you like that better?”</p><p>“That does sound promising,” Entrapta says. It’s hard to read her with her mask on, but she seems more subdued than she usually would be at hearing about a laser canon. “And all of the data I’ve ever collected on Runestones supports my hypothesis that disconnecting them completely would make the Heart more difficult to hack.”</p><p>“More difficult, but not...impossible?” Perfuma fidgets.</p><p>“It’s hard to say for sure. I’d need more data.” Entrapta pauses. “About Hordak –”</p><p>“Look,” Catra pushes on, “I know your whole Rebellion is built on talking things out, or whatever, but we need to get a move on. Horde Prime could be making his move any day now. I’ve told you what I know. You need to make a decision.”</p><p>Adora’s stomach twists, something hot and uncomfortable running through it, because Catra is standing tall and looking so <em>sure</em> –</p><p>“We can’t leave my power in Horde Prime’s hands,” Glimmer decides. “We’ll have to put together a plan to get it away from him. And I think disconnecting the Runestones is a good idea, at least for now.”</p><p>“But, Glimmer,” Bow says. “What if we mess things up and you end up losing your power <em>forever</em>?”</p><p>Glimmer draws herself up, looking, just for a second, like her mother. “We’ve all had to make sacrifices. And we’ll have to make even more to win this war. If this is mine, then so be it.”</p><p>The Princesses stare at her. Someone gasps, but Adora doesn’t see who it is.</p><p>“We can think about what to do with the Heart long-term after we defeat Horde Prime,” Glimmer continues. “But right now, we need to make sure no one can get their hands on that weapon.” She looks each Princess in the eye, in turn. “What do you think?”</p><p>“I do <em>not </em>like the idea of splitting up our powers,” Perfuma says immediately.</p><p>“And I don’t like the idea of trusting Cat-girl,” Mermista says. Adora tenses.</p><p>“Well <em>I</em> don’t like the idea of anyone being able to just...reach into us and use our power, like what happened when the Heart was almost activated in our last battle with the Horde,” Frosta says. Her back is straight and her voice is hard, the Queen she was when they first met. She turns to Scorpia. “You know the Horde – and Catra – better than anyone. What do you think?”</p><p>Scorpia takes a huge breath and looks at Catra. Catra’s ears push all the way back, but she meets her gaze.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Scorpia says at last. “I’m not so good at tactics, and plans... No one ever included me in all that.” Now Catra does look away, and brings her arms up around herself. “But I came to you guys for help to rescue Entrapta because I knew you <em>would</em> help,” Scorpia continues. “Because you’re like that. And I think that’s why Catra’s here, too. Because she needs help and she thinks you will.”</p><p>Catra’s claws are digging into her arms, shaking, and Adora’s throat seizes up again.</p><p>“I think Entrapta’s plan is the right call,” Netossa speaks up. “I’m not connected to a Runestone, so maybe it’s not my place to say...but I’ve been leading Rebel forces against the Horde for years. Keeping a weapon out of enemy hands is the right tactical decision, even if it means you lose it. Otherwise you’re looking at a long string of causalities.”</p><p>“We don’t have to trust Catra completely,” Spinnerella adds. “But at this point, with Horde Prime on our front doorstep...I think the benefits of listening to her outweigh the risks.”</p><p>Perfuma takes a deep breath, in and out, bringing the tips of her fingers together. “Okay.”</p><p>“Okay?” Mermista balks.</p><p>“If this is the best way.... Netossa is right. Disconnecting our power may be...absolutely <em>terrifying</em>, but we’re Princesses – we have a duty to make sure our power is never used to hurt people.”</p><p>“Or to hurt <em>us</em>,” Frosta agrees. “If something happened to all of us at once, Etheria would lose its leaders when it needs them most. And as for Catra, after all we’ve seen that she’s capable of, I’d rather have her on our side, even if we don’t like it. We don’t need a mind like hers, with the information she has, in enemy hands.”</p><p>“Uuuughhhh,<em> fine</em>.” Mermista crosses her arms. “But she has to stay in her room, or tied up. And be guarded at all times. We are <em>not</em> taking chances with this.”</p><p>Glimmer looks worried, but Catra scoffs, arms still crossed. “Fine,” she grits.</p><p>“And even if,” Mermista continues, “by some miracle we pull this off, she’s still banned from my kingdom. <em>Forever</em>.”</p><p>“That’s reasonable,” Glimmer says. “Any other objections?”</p><p>Bow shakes his head. Glimmer looks to Adora.</p><p>And this feels like a moment Adora should make some big, epic, final decision, but when has she <em>ever</em> been able to – “If Catra’s what we need to defeat Horde Prime, then so be it,” she says. Catra looks at her again, dual searchlights honed in on her, and Adora’s palms start to sweat. She gets to her feet, marches to the other side of the table to stand in front of Catra, to meet her head-on. “But I know you,” she hisses, right in Catra’s face. “If this is a trick and you hurt <em>anyone</em>, so help me I will eliminate you myself.”</p><p>And this isn’t strength, Adora remembers, as she glares at Catra, who meets her eyes, unresisting and resigned. Adora is not being strong right now.</p><p>
  <em>You’d never have the guts.</em>
</p><p>“I know,” Catra says.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yeah so at this point I need to mention that I haven’t read the Fire Princess, and apparently there’s some lore in there that contradicts what I’m going to do, so that’s where the Canon Divergence Tag comes from. That and the fact that in five days it will be all canon divergence anyway :P</p><p>Pulling this together has been a bit of a rush job, so I apologize for any world-building inaccuracies or plot-holes...feel free to tell me if you spot any! Constructive criticism is always appreciated :)</p><p>On a more serious note, this fic will deal with some of the fallout of Adora and Catra’s abuse, so please read with caution. And while I have done some research to try and make sure there are characters who will handle the situation appropriately and supportively, I have no personal experience in this area, so please, if I’m doing something harmful, let me know.</p><p>Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a comment or kudos, or sharing on tumblr (I'm iwouldgetaniguana there too) - commiserating over Catradora hell is half of how I’m coping right now. </p><p>Be safe, everyone, and be kind, especially to yourself!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“I’m talking about how I’ve never been around you for more than a few hours without you bringing up Catra,” Double Trouble accuses. <br/>“She was the Horde’s top general!” Adora splutters. “Of course we had to keep her in mind –”<br/>“Did you? Was anyone else?”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just a quick shout-out and thank you to the good people who have been so encouraging of my other She-Ra multi-chapter, and an apology for it taking so long to update and reply to reviews. My focus has been suffering the past few months (and this monster decided it needed to be written, and wouldn’t let me go), but Sick of You is still in my mind and in my agenda, and hopefully once things return a little bit to normal I’ll be able to focus on it better.</p>
<p>For now, enjoy this fic instead. :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The guards have long since stopped looking at Adora funny for pacing the hallway outside of Catra’s room, even though Adora knows she <em>shouldn’t</em> need to be here, because she had already checked three times that Catra is there – again, since the war meeting – but Glimmer hadn’t put the containment circle back up, had put wards on the door and window instead and Adora can’t help but feel that it’s this type of gradual loosening of security that –</p>
<p>And then Adora turns on her heels at the end of the hall to start back up towards Catra’s room, and sees Scorpia being let into it.</p>
<p>Adora’s chest tightens, and she rushes to the door just in time to stop it from closing all the way, pushing her ear up against the crack. The guards on either side of her sigh, but don’t stop her.</p>
<p>“How are you holding up?” Scorpia’s asking Catra.</p>
<p>After a beat, Catra answers. “You don’t have to check up on me, Scorpia.” Her voice is so, so small, and something claws up Adora’s stomach to curl around her throat and squeeze.</p>
<p>“This room is nice, huh?” Scorpia continues. “It’s so weird how their prison is nicer than our bunks were back in the Horde, right?”</p>
<p>Catra says nothing.</p>
<p>“Look, Catra, I just...” Scorpia pauses, and Adora pushes the door open just enough to peek through with one eye. Scorpia’s sitting down across from Catra, who’s sitting with her knees curled up to her chest on the floor beside the chaise, within the remnants of the containment spell’s circle. Scorpia gives Catra a small smile. “I’m just glad you’re here.”</p>
<p>Shock ripples over Catra’s face. Looking the floor, she replies, “You shouldn’t be.”</p>
<p>“Well, I am.”</p>
<p>Catra works her jaw like she’s chewing her tongue. “I’m glad you’re here, too. I – was worried about you.”</p>
<p>“I was worried about you, too.”</p>
<p>“You shouldn’t have been!” Catra spits, snarling at her. “When was I ever good to you? I took out all my frustration on you, threw everything you ever gave me back in your face and didn’t even have the decency to apologize!”</p>
<p>Scorpia just sits there. “You could apologize now.”</p>
<p>And Catra’s face cracks open. Adora hasn’t seen Catra cry since they were nine, but tears well and slip down her face, and she’s not making a single move to stop them. “How?” she cries. “What could it ever be enough?”</p>
<p>Scorpia shrugs. “Just tell me the truth.”</p>
<p>Catra heaves in air, tears dripping off her chin. “I’m sorry. You were nice to me and I couldn’t handle it. You took me as I was and I couldn’t handle it. I don’t know how to do what you do, but I knew how to take advantage of it. You deserve better.”</p>
<p>Scorpia is quiet a while. “Did I ever...step over any boundaries? With you?”</p>
<p>Catra snorts, wet and sticky. “All the time. It was awful. It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”</p>
<p>“That’s kind of messed up.”</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Do you wanna hug it out?” Scorpia asks, extending her arms.</p>
<p>Catra stares at her. <em>Adora </em>stares at her. How can she do that? How can she just – forgive her, move past it, <em>let it go</em>? The knot around Adora’s throat gets bigger, and she clutches at it.</p>
<p>“C’mon,” Scorpia coaxes. “It’s not all water under the bridge, but it’s a start, right?”</p>
<p>Every line in Catra’s body is tense as a bow string. She shoulders shake.</p>
<p>“C’mon,” Scorpia repeats.</p>
<p>Catra <em>throws</em> herself into Scorpia’s arms, colliding with a soft thump and burrying her face into Scorpia’s shoulder, trembling all over.</p>
<p>“There, there,” Scorpia says, holding her loosely and patting her back. “It’s alright, Wildcat, you’ll get through this.”</p>
<p>Lightning quick, Catra twists, growling, and yanks Scorpia’s arm into a lock pose, pushing her to the ground. Adora bursts through the door, reaching for her sword that’s – that’s not <em>there</em>, as Catra pins Scorpia down. “Double Trouble!” Catra snarls, every one of her teeth on display, “I will eviscerate you alive.”</p>
<p>Adora freezes.</p>
<p>Scorpia’s body turns to inky shadow, shifts and twists and shrinks and grows until it’s Double Trouble, loose-limbed and smirking up at Catra with a glint in their eye. “Come now, darling,” they say. “We both know you won’t.”</p>
<p>Catra shoves Double Trouble away and jumps to her feet. “I have had <em>enough</em> of your mind games, Double Trouble. There’s no reason for you to be doing this.”</p>
<p>“Alright, I admit it,” says Double Trouble. They roll over and sit up, putting their hands up in a mockery of surrender. “I’ve taken a shine to you, kitten, isn’t that reason enough?”</p>
<p>“And why is it that when people claim they’ve taken a <em>shine</em> to me, they fuck with my head, bounce me around like a training ball, and then throw me away like trash,” Catra spits.</p>
<p>Double Trouble chuckles. “<em>Now </em>you’re getting it, darling,” they glide to their feet. “There’s a difference between keeping someone around and actually caring about them, though. Why look, even now your knight in shining armour is watching over you.”</p>
<p>Catra turns and sees Adora standing there. Her eyes go wide. Adora’s whole body heats up until she feels like it’s radiating off of her. “I – you’re here on the condition that you don’t attack anyone,” she barks at Catra. “And – and no visiting the prisoner!” she tells Double Trouble. “Who even let you in?”</p>
<p>“Oh, sweetheart, no one <em>lets </em>me in anywhere,” Double Trouble smirks.</p>
<p>“That’s because no one likes you,” Catra snaps.</p>
<p>Double Trouble brings a hand to their heart. “Is that any way to treat the only friend you may have left?” they ask shrewdly.</p>
<p>Catra hisses, ears flicking back. “A <em>friend</em> wouldn’t pretend to be Scorpia. If you actually cared about me, you wouldn’t go there.”</p>
<p>Double Trouble blinks, reptilian eyelids sliding in, then out again. Then their smile is back. “I suppose I won’t if you will. If you actually care about <em>her</em>, you might want to let her down easy, <em>Wildcat</em>.”</p>
<p>Catra flinches, and whatever this is, Adora has had enough of it. She marches over to Double Trouble and grabs their arm. “I think we’re done here,” she tells them, pulling them away.</p>
<p>“Oh <em>my</em>,” Double Trouble coos, “Am I in trouble?”</p>
<p>Adora grits her teeth and marches them towards the door.</p>
<p>“How did you know?” they ask, pulling against Adora to look back at Catra. “It’s not often that I get made, and if you’re going to mess up any future performances –”</p>
<p>“You give terrible hugs,” Catra sneers. “Maybe you’re not so great at keeping people around either.”</p>
<p>All at once, Double Trouble’s limbs go more liquid, easier to guide. They don’t put up any more resistance as Adora pulls them out of the door and around the corner, and she and they are almost to Glimmer’s room before they start walking with their usual, vaguely flirtatious sway. “Taking me to the Queen, or dealing with me yourself?” they ask.</p>
<p>Adora ignores the question. She’s not going to fall for Double Trouble’s tricks again. “I know you turned on the Horde and helped us in the last battle, but you don’t have permission to be in Brightmoon. And you need to stay away from Catra. She’s still dangerous. Or you could be plotting something with her, or –” she shakes her head. “I don’t know. The point is, you’re not allowed to see Catra, because destruction is sure to follow.”</p>
<p>Double Trouble hums. “Is that <em>really</em> what you’re afraid of, darling?”</p>
<p>“What do you mean? Of course –”</p>
<p>“Of course she’s hurt you, of course you’ve always had to be on your guard for whatever she was planning next,” Double Trouble allows. “I should know – I saw up close how her mind works and it is a <em>beauty</em>! So many machinations, so many <em>manoeuvres</em>! But is that really the only reason you keep an eye on her?”</p>
<p>“What are you talking about?” Adora snaps.</p>
<p>“I’m talking about how I’ve never been around you for more than a few hours without you bringing up Catra,” Double Trouble – <em>accuses</em>.</p>
<p>“She was the Horde’s top general!” Adora splutters. “Of course we had to keep her in mind –”</p>
<p>“Did you? Was anyone <em>else</em>?”</p>
<p>“O-of course. We had scouts report in all the time –”</p>
<p>“About troop and bot movements,” Double Trouble finishes. “I know, sweetheart, I was there. So I know the Rebels were mostly focused on Hordak. But what about Catra, hmm? Where was she? How many times did you ask yourself that question and not have an answer? How many times did that drive you to distraction without Catra even lifting a finger?”</p>
<p>Adora freezes.</p>
<p>“The past few weeks must have been <em>torture</em> for you,” Double Trouble continues. “No news of her whatsoever, was there? I wonder how many times you looked.”</p>
<p>“That’s none of your business!” Adora snaps. Her face is on fire.</p>
<p>“Everything to do with character motivation is my business, darling,” Double Trouble laughs. “It’s how I play my parts so well.”</p>
<p>Adora starts hauling them down the corridor again. “Well, we haven’t accepted your business, so I’m taking you to the Queen so that she can decide what to do with you.”</p>
<p>“If she’s smart, she’ll want my services again. It sounds like you could use every advantage you can get, and it worked <em>so</em> well last time.”</p>
<p>Adora grits her teeth. “We already have a plan. If we decide we’d like you in it, <em>then</em> we’ll let you know.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I see <em>someone’s</em> grown since last time we met,” Double Trouble trills. “Just promise me you won’t stop there, alright? Glimmer’s not the only one who needs your attention, and pining is bad for team moral.”</p>
<p>“Stop talking nonsense,” Adora spits. It takes the rest of the way to Glimmer’s room for her face to cool down.</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>“Adora,” Glimmer sighs. “I don’t think this is necessary.”</p>
<p>“So you trust Catra and Double Trouble in the same room?” Adora asks harshly.</p>
<p>“Well, no.”</p>
<p>“Exactly.”</p>
<p>She and Glimmer are standing at the entrance to Catra’s room. The door is open, and Catra is sitting by the window in the sunlight, pretending to ignore them, but Adora can see her ears pricked in their direction. Which means she was already looking at Catra. Which is something she’s told herself she’d stop doing.</p>
<p>Dowager King Micah, hand on his chin, regards the arch the of the doorway. “Shapeshifting is a very innate kind of magic,” he warns. “Any spell that would keep out shapeshifters would block entry to anyone with <em>any</em> kind of magic, myself included.”</p>
<p>“Sure, fine,” Adora says. She tugs on her ponytail.</p>
<p>“But Adora, that would keep <em>us</em> from getting in, too! And the other Princesses!” Glimmer exclaims.</p>
<p>“So Princesses can question her from out here, and the guards can go in as needed,” Adora reasons.</p>
<p>“And what about when Catra comes out of her room for council meetings? We can’t ward the whole Castle against Double Trouble!”</p>
<p>“All the more reason to make this room somewhere they <em>can’t </em>get in!”</p>
<p>Glimmer pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. “Will this really make you feel better about Catra being here?”</p>
<p>Adora grits her teeth. “Yes.”</p>
<p>“Okay, then,” Glimmer agrees. She squeezes Adora’s hand, then turns her father. “Thanks, Dad.”</p>
<p>“Of course,” King Micah says, beaming at his daughter. “I can teach you how to do it, if you can stay.”</p>
<p>“I would love that,” Glimmer groans, “But I can’t. I need to deal with the Double Trouble situation.”</p>
<p>“This <em>is</em> dealing with the Double Trouble situation,” Adora points out.</p>
<p>“Not it’s not.” Glimmer smiles gently at her. “There are plenty of other ways they can cause trouble, and like I said, we can’t keep them out. That would be impossible, and they seem to <em>want </em>to be here for whatever reason. I’ll ask the others what they want to do about it, then check back in with you. Okay?”</p>
<p>Adora nods, and Glimmer walks off for the council chamber.</p>
<p>King Micah crouches on the ground next to the threshold of Catra’s room and begins drawing a circle of magic. “So. This Catra’s a Person of Interest, is she?”</p>
<p>“She’s a dangerous prisoner,” Adora corrects.</p>
<p>“Right...” King Micah says. “And you’re expecting someone to try to rescue her?”</p>
<p>Adora jolts. “Uh, no. I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s anyone who <em>would</em> rescue her at this point.”</p>
<p>Catra groans. “Then <em>why</em> are you even bothering? Don’t you have something better to do?”</p>
<p>Adora ignores her.</p>
<p>King Micah coughs. “So...this spell is to keep her from consorting with enemies?”</p>
<p>“Right.”</p>
<p>“Enemies who are not coming to get her.”</p>
<p>“They – I – it’s just a precaution,” Adora says, massaging her temples. “Don’t let dangerous enemies near the dangerous prisoner. It makes sense.”</p>
<p>“And...how many of our enemies have magic?” he asks. “Other than this Double Trouble, who might not be an enemy at all?”</p>
<p>Adora bites her lip.</p>
<p>“None,” Catra supplies, getting up from the window ledge and padding towards the door. She stays just inside the room. “With Shadow Weaver, Scorpia, and Entrapta all officially on the Rebellion’s side, that would be none.”</p>
<p>“We weren’t asking you,” Adora snaps.</p>
<p>King Micah frowns. “But she is here to provide information, isn’t she?”</p>
<p>“She’s, just, do you have a problem with increasing our security?” Adora rounds on him, then pulls up short. “Uh – Your Majesty,” she adds quickly.</p>
<p>Catra snorts. Adora waits for her to add a biting remark. She doesn’t.</p>
<p>There’s something happening on King Micah’s face that could be a smile or a grimace – it’s hard to tell with the beard. “Not at all,” he answers her, going back to drawing symbols along the floor, then standing up to pull them up along the doorframe. “I was just wondering what’s actually wrong.”</p>
<p>Adora’s hands go numb. “Um,” she says, “What?”</p>
<p>“Putting this barrier spell outside of Catra’s room doesn’t make much sense if Catra’s already been past it to go to the war meeting and Double Trouble can get anywhere else in the Castle anyway,” King Micah explains.</p>
<p>“But –” Adora tries.</p>
<p>“And you’re clearly upset that no one seems to agree with you.”</p>
<p>“I am not!”</p>
<p>King Micah puts his hands out placatingly and laughs. “I remember being a young thing at the Academy of Sorcery,” he begins, putting on a wistful air. At least, Adora <em>thinks</em> he’s putting it on – his eyes are far away as he traces diamond patterns along the doorframe. “I was acing every test, perfecting every exercise...frustrated to the point of distraction that no one would take me seriously.”</p>
<p>“Uh, is there a reason you’re doing this?” Catra drawls, crossing her arms and leaning against the opposite side of the doorway.</p>
<p>“I just wanted to offer a little wisdom. That is, as I understand from stories, the role of the estranged, ex-hermit magician.”</p>
<p>Catra flicks her gaze <em>almost</em> to Adora, catching somewhere on her jacket. “Is he always like this?”</p>
<p>“He’s the <em>King</em>,” Adora hisses. “And you’re in his kingdom. Show him some respect.”</p>
<p>“Well,” King Micah considers, “I’m not <em>her</em> King. And we are holding her prisoner. Some amount of insolence is fair.”</p>
<p>Catra blinks and looks him up and down in surprise.</p>
<p>“But as I was saying,” he continues, putting his hand up in some sort of pose and – <em>sparkling</em>, somehow. “I ran through the halls of Mystacor; a young prodigy tired of patience and eager for greatness. I asked after all of the Masters to teach me more advanced magic than was allowed for my level, but was turned down by almost everyone. I thought they didn’t understand, that they were too stuck up to see that I was ready, that I could handle it.”</p>
<p>“But you proved them wrong with hard work and dedication?” Adora guesses.</p>
<p>King Micah laughs. “I proved them <em>right</em>, by being lured into casting dangerous spells by someone as eager for greatness as I was.”</p>
<p>Adora frowns. Surely not –</p>
<p>“Shadow Weaver,” Catra guesses, and Adora’s throat tightens.</p>
<p>“Indeed,” King Micah sighs. “Though she was known as Light Spinner, then. Under her guidance, I stole from the Sacred Library, modified spells to do things outside of safety regulations, and,” his face darkens, “helped her conjure the very entity that now grants her her horrible shadow powers.”</p>
<p>Adora shivers.</p>
<p>“I never thought what I was doing was wrong. Not until I saw Light Spinner turn into Shadow Weaver before my very eyes. After that, I locked myself in my room for a week, and only came out to try to leave Mystacor as penance for my actions.”</p>
<p>“But there’s a statue of you there,” Adora says. “I thought you studied there until –”</p>
<p>“They refused to expel me,” King Micah says. “I’ll never forget what Master Pinedew said. He told me that my only wrongdoing was in not coming to the Guild for help when Shadow Weaver asked me to break the rules. That as she was my teacher, she had not only endangered everyone by using forbidden magic, but had betrayed her duty to protect me. And that what happened wasn’t my fault.”</p>
<p>Catra scoffs. “But you said you modified those spells yourself.”</p>
<p>“I did,” King Micah admits. “And because of it the Guild decreed that I was to complete an extra year of ethics study before I could graduate, and that my first year after that would be monitored closely. I did, and it was. It was the same treatment that was given to any other student who broke Guild rules. Shadow Weaver was banished from the Guild, permanently.”</p>
<p>“How –” Adora’s voice cracks. “Is that why you came to Brightmoon?”</p>
<p>“Ah,” King Micah’s expression clears, goes wistful again. “I came to Brightmoon for Angella. We met at the Princess Prom held in Plumeria and, when she told me that without a firmer grasp of elemental magic the spell I was developing would never work, my heart became hers.”</p>
<p>“Barf,” Catra says.</p>
<p>Adora sees red. “He could be doing that now,” she yells past the vice in her throat, so loud that Catra startles, “he could be talking to his wife, and figuring out how to protect Brightmoon from Horde Prime with her <em>right now</em> if you hadn’t opened the portal, if you hadn’t –”</p>
<p>“Angella’s sacrifice,” King Micha interrupts in a low voice, putting a gentle hand on Adora’s shoulder, “was of her own choosing. She saved <em>all</em> of us, all of Etheria, Princesses and Horde soldiers and civilians alike, and that is how we should honour her. She gave all of us a second chance –” he looks over at Catra. “Well, me a third chance, I suppose.”</p>
<p>Catra looks down at her feet, ears drooped. “And what did you do with your second one?” she whispers.</p>
<p>King Micah smiles at her, but she doesn’t see it. Adora does. “I tried to help her build a safe, prosperous kingdom, where everyone had a place and got what they needed. I tried so hard because it was Angella listening to me, to my ideas and aspirations – even the terrible ones that would never work. I didn’t realize until I had it that it’s what I’d really been asking for, in Mystacor, when I acted so recklessly: I wanted to be listened to. That’s what had actually been wrong.”</p>
<p>The grip around Adora’s throat loosens, just a bit, and she wonders....Running amuck in Mystacor stealing Sacred Writings is hardly on the level of kidnappings and sieges and world-destroying portals, but Adora looks at Catra and <em>wonders</em> because it’s never made sense to her, never quite fit, always been so <em>frustrating</em> –</p>
<p>
  <em>Soon we’ll be the ones calling the shots.</em>
</p>
<p><em>I’m after something bigger. And </em>no one<em> is going to stop me.</em></p>
<p><em>I </em>won’t <em>let you win. I’d rather see the whole </em>world<em> end than let that happen.</em></p>
<p>So what was it then? The more Catra stares at her feet the more Adora wonders. Her throat squeezes shut again and her hands start to shake. What’s really been wrong?</p>
<p>King Micah clears his throat, and Adora snaps her gaze back to him. He’s looking between them, face serious. “If I’m honest with you...I’ve been worried that Shadow Weaver put you kids through something similar to what I experienced, growing up.”</p>
<p>Catra’s claws scratch along the wood of the doorframe. Adora can’t say anything.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to talk about it,” he assures them. “But if you want to, I’m here to listen, anytime. And I’ve instructed the guards to keep Shadow Weaver off this floor, where your rooms are. I can put up more protective spells, if you want.”</p>
<p>“This isn’t my room,” Catra growls. “And I don’t need your protection.”</p>
<p>King Micah nods, slightly. “As you wish.” He turns to Adora.</p>
<p>Adora opens her mouth, but she can’t – how is she supposed to –</p>
<p>Quick footfalls echo off the walls, and Adora turns to see Glimmer jogging up to them. “I <em>hate</em> walking,” Glimmer groans, running her hands down her face and looking at Catra, who lifts her head at last, “And Double Trouble is a <em>nightmare</em>. How did you handle them?”</p>
<p>After a second, Catra shrugs. “Badly?”</p>
<p>Glimmer opens her mouth to reply, but Adora interrupts her. “What do they want?”</p>
<p>“To help,” Glimmer says.</p>
<p>“Double Trouble’s help always comes with a price, whether or not they tell you what it is up front,” Catra warns.</p>
<p>Glimmer nods. “How did the spell go?” she asks her father.</p>
<p>“All done,” King Micah smiles. “Do you need anything else?”</p>
<p>“Your Majesty, thank you, really, for doing this –” Adora grabs Glimmer’s arm – “But do you mind if Glimmer and I go to discuss strategy, um,” she looks at Catra pointedly, “elsewhere?”</p>
<p>King Micah shakes his head. “Of course. The spell’s done. I’ll check up on it once a day, to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.” He looks at between Catra and Adora kindly. “Remember what I said.”</p>
<p>“Fine, sure, whatever,” Catra says, in a voice with no bite. “Can you leave me alone now?”</p>
<p>King Micah nods, expression stiff soft, and walks away.</p>
<p>Adora drags Glimmer down the hall a ways. Once they’re out of earshot, she turns and says, “Could you not talk about whatever Double Trouble’s offered you in front of Catra? We can’t trust them together.”</p>
<p>“You’ve made your position on that clear, Adora. But we’re only going to be able to keep them apart for so long. I think Double Trouble...” Glimmer’s face twists, eyes squinting, “<em>misses</em> Catra? They’re really hard to read.”</p>
<p>Adora huffs. “That doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t tell Double Trouble anything about our plans yet.”</p>
<p>“We haven’t,” Glimmer assures her. “But we did make some progress on our plans to disconnect the Runestones.” She takes Adora’s hands. “I even have an intel-gathering mission for you!”</p>
<p>Adora breathes out, her shoulders relaxing, and almost laughs. “Great! That’s – what do you need me to do?”</p>
<p>“Go to Bow’s Dads’ place,” Glimmer beams. “Since they have the biggest collection of ancient knowledge in all of Etheria, they might have some First Ones writings, or pottery shards, or <em>whatever</em>, that can help us figure out how the Runestones are connected to each other!”</p>
<p>“I should bring Entrapta, too,” Adora says. “She knows the most about this stuff.”</p>
<p>Glimmer winces. “She’s busy building a trans-atmospheric laser canon that we will <em>definitely</em> need later. But Catra also knows –”</p>
<p>“<em>No</em>,” Adora panics.</p>
<p>“<em>Please</em>?” Glimmer asks. “She’s the one who figured out how to take advantage of the Runestones in the first place –”</p>
<p>“Against <em>us</em>!”</p>
<p>“And now we need to know how <em>Horde Prime</em> could use them against us! And she knows the most about Horde Prime. It’s an intel-gathering mission. She’s good at those.”</p>
<p>Adora swallows and looks away.</p>
<p>Glimmer puts a hand on her arm. “Spinnerella and Netossa will be there to guard her the whole time. And Bow will be with you, too. It’s just a day to Lance and George’s and back. Are you okay to do that?”</p>
<p>“You’re sending a Horde solider to George’s house after what happened to his village?” Adora asks.</p>
<p>“George can handle Catra.”</p>
<p>“<em>No one</em> can handle Catra,” Adora mumbles, but knows she’s lost. The way Glimmer’s smiling at her now reminds her so much of the way Angella used to smile at her, gentle and warm. And it is a good plan. And if Catra really <em>does</em> cause some trouble, well then they’ll know they can’t trust her, won’t they? “Okay,” Adora agrees.</p>
<p>Glimmer holds out a fist. “Best friend squad?”</p>
<p>Adora bumps her fist with her own. “Best friend squad.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is baby’s first time writing a character that uses they/them pronouns, so if I messed up on any for Double Trouble, please let me know so I can fix it!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Great,” Catra says, “Then we can get to work. We need everything you have on Princess Runestones. Specifically, on how they’re connected to each other.”</p>
<p>“Catra,” Adora hisses. “I’m sorry,” she tells Lance and George. “I think she meant, ‘if we can please look at anything you have on Princess Runestones and how they connect to each other, that would be very helpful’.”</p>
<p>Catra rolls her eyes.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>y’all ready for some lore? I must emphasize again that I have not read the Fire Princess</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Crunching through the brush of the Whispering Woods with the dim light of dawn casting everything in dark blues and purples, Adora is hyperaware of how much noise Catra <em>isn’t </em>making compared to the rest of them. Her footsteps are light and silent, and she’s staring dead ahead as if there’s something she wants to kill just out of her line of sight. Her arms are bound to her sides by a thin net of glowing blue that extends back to be held by Netossa, who’s chatting quietly with Spinnerella about what the Woods used to be like when they were younger.</p>
<p>Adora has no idea what to say. She shouldn’t feel the need to say anything, but she also shouldn’t feel like she might explode.</p>
<p>“Sorry we have to keep you tied up,” is what Bow goes for. “It’s just, you know – last time we, uh, captured you, you were a pretty serious escape risk even while tied up. Also, uh,” he scratches the back of his neck. “Sorry for kidnapping you that time.”</p>
<p>Catra’s face scrunches up. “Do you ever stop apologizing?”</p>
<p>Bow looks at her with those big brown eyes of his.</p>
<p>“Urgh,” Catra rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry about it. I’d have done way worse to you.”</p>
<p>“Yeah?” Bow challenges. “Like what?”</p>
<p>“Like <em>send you to Beast Island</em>,” Catra spits, pinning him with that glare.</p>
<p>Adora flinches.</p>
<p>“So!” Bow tries again, wringing his hands. “I think you’ll like my Dads’ library. Did you guys have a library in the Horde?”</p>
<p>“What’s a library?” Catra asks.</p>
<p>“Oh,” Bow says, with a glance at Adora, his shoulders sagging. “Oh, this explains a lot.”</p>
<p>“Oh, what,” says Catra, monotone, “was there something the all-powerful Adora didn’t know?”</p>
<p>Adora’s shoulders hike up. “I’ve never claimed to know <em>everything</em>.”</p>
<p>Catra snorts.</p>
<p>“Just because you couldn’t tell the obvious difference between right and wrong doesn’t make me some sort of genius for figuring it out,” Adora snaps.</p>
<p>“Well, <em>I’ve </em>never claimed you were any sort of genius.”</p>
<p>Adora glares at her, but Catra isn’t looking.</p>
<p>Bow clears his throat. “Well, anyway. I think you’ll like it. The library. It’s a collection of knowledge, and you love defeating your enemies with clever tactics, right? That’s the application of knowledge! And my Dads have the biggest library about ancient Etheria.”</p>
<p>“Yay,” Catra says, deadpan, “I get to learn more about Princess magic.”</p>
<p>“There’s other stuff, too,” Bow assures her.</p>
<p>“Like how to make you stop talking?”</p>
<p>“Like lots of stuff. Maybe there’s something on First Ones ships! Or about their knowledge of space! That could help us learn about Horde Prime’s empire.”</p>
<p>“His empire’s a bunch of giant ships hanging around in space waiting to destroy us. What else is there to know?”</p>
<p>Adora crosses her arms. “<em>Cleary</em> not much, since you refuse to tell us about anything that happened up there.”</p>
<p>Catra’s jaw clicks as she opens her mouth. “I have. I’ve told you everything I know.”</p>
<p>“Have you?” Adora demands. “Glimmer’s been – different, and you’re not usually one for retreat, Catra.”</p>
<p>Catra looks like she’s chewing on her tongue. “I don’t want to talk to you about it. And if Sparkles doesn’t either, that’s none of my business.”</p>
<p>“Don’t call her that.”</p>
<p>“She said I could.”</p>
<p>Adora’s stomach twists itself in a knot and her skin prickles with heat. She feels like a grenade with a loose pin. “You have a pretty weird way of trying to show you’ve changed, you know that?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t say I’ve <em>changed</em>,” Catra hisses, ears snapping back. She’s still glaring dead-ahead with razor-sharp focus. “I just don’t want the whole world to blow up –”</p>
<p>“Which <em>is</em> change!” Bow points out, beaming at her. “And you came to us for help, that’s change, too!”</p>
<p>“Well, you know me –” Catra hunches forward, her shoulders hiking up – “the layabout, the screw-up. Maybe I just couldn’t figure out how to get out of this by myself. Don’t expect great things.”</p>
<p>“<em>Don’t expect</em> –” the pin drops, and Adora explodes. “You trick your way into Princess Prom, destroy Frosta’s palace, come up with the first assault strategy that has <em>ever </em>gotten through the Whispering Woods, invent new Horde bots, take over the Crimson Waste, almost destroy all of Etheria, almost<em> conquer</em> <em>half</em> of Etheria, and now that you’re supposedly on the right side suddenly I shouldn’t expect <em>great things</em> from you?”</p>
<p>Adora is taking in great, gulping breathes. Catra is staring at her. Her eyes have finally left the woods around them, and they are huge and round and open, like Adora’s the one who said something ridiculous.</p>
<p>“Maybe you’re heart’s just not it in,” Adora snaps, and Catra flinches, her face shuttering closed again.</p>
<p>Netossa steps up gently between them. “Why don’t we take it one step at a time. Both literally and figuratively.” She gestures for them to keep walking.</p>
<p>Adora hadn’t realized they’d stopped. She feels her face heat up as they start to walk again.</p>
<p>Catra’s back to staring into the woods. “Entrapta invented the new horde bots,” she says. “It was my idea to make them weapons, but I can’t take credit for the actual work.”</p>
<p>Which is the kind of thing Adora’s never heard her say before. Usually, Catra can’t wait to take credit for things.</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>Bow’s Dads’ house, when they get there, is just as Adora remembers it – all grand columns and creeping vines – but there’s a new wardrobe by the door for Bow to hang his bow and arrows. As they enter the first floor of the vast library, Adora looks around to see if anything else has changed – and catches Catra surveying the bookshelves, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. She doesn’t spare a glance at the artifacts in glass containers, but stares at a row of thick tomes with her ears perked forward in interest.</p>
<p>A door at the other end of the library opens. “Bow! Adora!” Lance runs forward and gathers them into his arms. “It’s so lovely to see you.”</p>
<p>“Dad,” Bow says, head squished into Adora’s shoulder. “The world is ending.”</p>
<p>Lance lets them go with a sigh. “Well, be that as it may...”</p>
<p>“We’ll do everything we can to help,” George adds, walking around his husband to embrace Bow and Adora in turn. “The world won’t end if we have anything to say about it.”</p>
<p>“We appreciate your help, sirs,” Adora tells them. “We know it must be difficult with, uh, what you’ve been through –”</p>
<p>George turns to Spinnerella and Netossa. “Well.” He grips Bow’s shoulder. “With how highly my son speaks of you, we’re...honoured to have you here. I never thought I’d have a Horde soldier under my roof,” he adds, looking coldly at Catra, “but, in light of current circumstances, and since Bow’s vouched for you as well...”</p>
<p>“Great,” Catra says, “Then we can get to work. We need everything you have on Princess Runestones. Specifically, on how they’re connected to each other.”</p>
<p>“<em>Catra</em>,” Adora hisses. “I’m sorry,” she tells Lance and George. “I think she meant, ‘if we can please look at anything you have on Princess Runestones and how they connect to each other, that would be very helpful’.”</p>
<p>Catra rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>George puts a hand under his chin. “We do have a small number of texts that we collected to study the Runestone shard we showed you last time –”</p>
<p>“The one that was guarded by the terrifying elemental guardian you let loose on the library!” Lance specifies, smiling at Adora. She’s pretty sure he’s being genuine.</p>
<p>“...Yes,” George continues, with a sideways glance at his husband. “But because of my history with the Princesses, it’s not much. In fact, after my village was destroyed, I even burned a number of volumes and old manuscripts on the subject in my rage. I’m not sure they were the only copies, but given the current state of affairs, I’m not sure we could find them again.”</p>
<p>“The Princesses destroyed your village?” Catra asks. She has an expression on her face that Adora’s never seen before.</p>
<p>George lets out a long sigh. “No. I fought in the original Princess Alliance. Because of that, I wasn’t home to help when the Horde invaded my village. The Rebellion wasn’t enough to match them, and they burned it to the ground. I blamed the Princesses for that for a long time. But I realize now that I was just deflecting the blame from where it belonged. And as Bow’s shown me, turning away from the fight didn’t solve anything.”</p>
<p>The expression Adora doesn’t recognize on Catra’s face grows brittle, like she’s going to scream. George looks curiously back.</p>
<p>“It’s this way!” Lance interjects, steering them through the long room to the alcove that displays the Runestone shard. “You said you were looking for information about how the Runestones are connected to each other?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Bow says. “We were actually wondering if it might be possible to <em>disconnect </em>them from each other.”</p>
<p>Lance and George frown at each other. “<em>Disconnect</em> the Runestones...” George mutters.</p>
<p>“Well, the royal line of Magicorpions was disconnected from <em>their</em> Runestone decades ago, when it was stolen by the Horde,” Lance says, running his forefinger along a line of titles on a nearby bookshelf. “And that could have disconnected it from the others. But I’ve never heard of a Princess disconnecting from their power on purpose.”</p>
<p>“Not in any of the thousands of years of Etherian history?” Bow asks.</p>
<p>“Oh, no,” George corrects, taking out a scroll and laying it out on a table. “The Princesses only started using Runestones <em>at all </em>about one thousand, five hundred years ago.” Adora walks over to the table and looks down at the scroll. It’s an old painting of five Princesses, each glowing a different colour, standing in a circle and holding hands. Around them, flowers bloom, and a frozen lake sparkles under a clear, moonlit sky. “No Runestones,” Bow observes, coming up behind Adora. “But paintings from this era usually include symbolic depictions of whatever’s relevant to the subject of the painting.”</p>
<p>“Exactly,” George says. He slides his finger along the edge of the scroll, where several symbols are inscribed. “We have several moons as they appear in the sky, water, flowers, snowflakes, lightning...but no Runestones. No rocks at all, for that matter.”</p>
<p>“But the Runestones are so central to the Princesses’ powers,” Adora argues.</p>
<p>“Not for us,” Netossa says, looking at the Runestone shard in the glass case. “Spinnerella and I, Entrapta, the Star sisters – we’ve never used Runestones.”</p>
<p>“Then how is your power different from that of sorcerers?” Bow asks. “I’ve never understood that.”</p>
<p>Netossa shrugs. “Sorcerers have to learn magic. Our power just <em>is</em>. We inherit it, and it’s a part of us.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella comes to stand beside her wife, peering at the Runestone shard. “I tried asking my father about it once when I was little, and he just told me some story about how the wind listens. It was a good story, but I think his point was that our family’s always been able to harness the power of the wind, and that I would get the hang of it eventually. Which Runestone is this a part of?” she asks. “I don’t recognize it.”</p>
<p>“No one knows,” Lance says, an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes. “Some say it’s a leftover Runestone from when they were first made. Others hypothesize that there was once a sixth Runestone Princess –”</p>
<p>“Which is absurd,” George interjects, “seeing as how that would mean the five Runestone Princesses would be unable to keep the planet balanced if they were missing one –”</p>
<p>“But I’ve always thought,” Lance continues, bringing a hand to his chest, “that it was a piece of the Black Garnet. We currently only have artist renderings to identify what it looks like, and –”</p>
<p>“That’s not the Black Garnet,” Catra interrupts. “<em>I’ve</em> seen it, and it’s way darker than that.”</p>
<p>Lance and George blink at her. “You’ve...<em>seen</em> the Black Garnet?” Lance breathes.</p>
<p>“Yeah?” Catra shrugs. “It’s in the Fright Zone. We used it to freeze over the Whispering Woods.”</p>
<p>“That was <em>you</em>?” Lance screeches, hands flying to the top of his head, his eyes wide behind his glasses. He starts pacing. “It’s always been said that the Runestones keep Etheria balanced, but to have an observable effect of that <em>magnitude</em>...Did you record your findings?” he asks eagerly.</p>
<p>“Um,” Catra’s taken a small step backward, eyebrows high on her forehead. “I’m sure Entrapta did.”</p>
<p>“If this shard isn’t from the Black Garnet,” George says, putting a hand on Lance’s shoulder, “then I’m afraid we have no idea <em>what</em> it’s from.”</p>
<p>Catra looks at Adora. Just for a brief moment, only long enough to get her attention, but it’s there. “They said something about you fighting off an elemental in here?”</p>
<p>“Y-yeah,” Adora manages. “Yeah, it was guarding the Runestone shard.”</p>
<p>“And those elementals are First Ones tech, right?”</p>
<p>“Oh, right,” Adora says, crossing her arms. “We learned that when you infected me with that virus in the Northern Reach and all of the First Ones tech went haywire.”</p>
<p>“Exactly,” Catra says. Her ears are drooped downwards but her tone is determined. “It infected the Runestone on your sword, <em>and</em> the elemental that was guarding the First Ones tech in the mine. What if the Runestones aren’t just <em>connected</em> to the First Ones tech that makes up the Heart – what if they <em>are</em> First Ones tech?”</p>
<p>Adora goes cold. “You mean...all of them? They built the whole system?”</p>
<p>“Well, yes,” Lance says. “The First Ones brought innovative technology to many areas of Etherian life. Though the records of how exactly the Princesses used this technology to make the Runestones are lost –”</p>
<p>“The Princesses didn’t make the Runestones at all,” Catra growls. “Or if they did, they were tricked. They don’t need them to do magic,” she jabs a thumb at Spinnerella and Netossa, “So the Runestones must have been made to be part of the Heart. The First Ones made them specifically for the weapon, to collect the Princesses’ powers and connect them to the trigger, She-Ra’s sword.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella puts a hand to her mouth. Netossa’s mouth is hanging open.</p>
<p>“That’s...quite a theory,” George manages.</p>
<p>“If that’s true,” Adora counters, “why would Hordak just let Shadow Weaver do what she wanted with the Black Garnet? Wouldn’t he have recognized it was tech from off-planet and tried to use it?”</p>
<p>Catra brushes this away. “Hordak wasn’t interested in using anything but Horde tech – he thought everything on Etheria was backwards. He didn’t even know what First Ones tech could do before Entrapta came along. He had no idea about the Heart, or any of it. He doesn’t understand <em>anything</em> about this planet, if his weird atmosphere machine is anything to go by.”</p>
<p>“Weird atmosphere machine?” Spinnerella asks.</p>
<p>Catra stiffens. “Apparently the atmosphere is different where he’s from.” She shrugs, but it looks off with her shoulders tight and her arms crossed. “From what I’ve seen though, he’s from space, so maybe he just doesn’t understand what an atmosphere <em>is</em>.”</p>
<p>Adora clenches her fists. Finally, some information about what they’re up against. “What does he want to know about the atmosphere?” Bow asks.</p>
<p>“I dunno,” Catra sneers. “I guess it was interfering with his experiments.”</p>
<p>“You <em>guess</em> so?” Adora snaps. “This could be important, Catra. What was he experimenting with?”</p>
<p>“I don’t have anything on this,” Catra spits, hackles rising. “I told you about the Black Garnet and I’m telling you that your beloved Runestones are part of the Heart, isn’t that what’s important?”</p>
<p>“We just want to know if there’s anything else Horde Prime could use against us,” Spinnerella explains with more patience. “Or if there’s something about Etheria that we could use to protect ourselves. Anything you could tell us would be helpful.”</p>
<p>“I – I don’t know.”</p>
<p>Adora frowns at Catra. “What, you didn’t think to ask questions when Hordak made you second-in-command and showed you all of his top-secret projects?” she growls.</p>
<p>Catra growls back. “No.”</p>
<p>“And why not, huh?” Adora pushes. Catra’s back is curving inward, and each inch she that shrinks away pulls at something in Adora, pulling the words out of her mouth. “It wasn’t First Ones tech, and you were having too much fun using that against us?”</p>
<p>“Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. Weren’t you always nagging me about that?”</p>
<p>“And haven’t you proven me wrong enough times by now? Haven’t you used everything I ever let you know about me against you? Why not this? Why not use Hordak’s stupid atmosphere machine on us?”</p>
<p>“I – nothing, no reason! Hordak was terrible at conquering Etheria, why would I use his garbage?”</p>
<p>“I’m more concerned about how it works,” Bows says. He tries to get between them, but Adora steps around him. “What was he doing with the atmosphere?” she demands.</p>
<p>“Nothing!” Catra hisses. Her ears are all the way back. “It was some sort of thing to make the atmosphere more like what he was used to, I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“Well, do you remember anything about how it worked?” Bow asks. “Or does Entrapta? Maybe she could figure out –”</p>
<p>“He wouldn’t have used it on Entrapta, and I only saw it for a few minutes, we couldn’t –”</p>
<p>Netossa steps forward suddenly. “What do you mean, ‘use it <em>on</em> her’?” she asks.</p>
<p>Catra goes still as stone. Adora’s lungs shrivel up, keeping all of the air out.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” Catra repeats – a third time. And her hand comes up to her throat.</p>
<p>Adora’s air comes back in a rush. “You let him <em>experiment </em>on you?”</p>
<p>Catra’s claws come out. “Shut up.”</p>
<p>A laugh surprises Adora on its way out of her mouth. Several more follow. They sound hollow and cracked, and she can’t feel her face. “So this was part of your ‘calling the shots,’ then? Part of getting back at Shadow Weaver? You just let Hordak <em>suffocate</em> you?”</p>
<p>
  <em>I wouldn’t have hurt you. Not like that.</em>
</p>
<p>“I didn’t <em>let</em> him do anything,” Catra snarls. “What would you know, you weren’t even there.”</p>
<p>“Then why would you <em>stay there</em>?” Adora screams. “You told me you knew they were manipulating us, you <em>knew</em> what they were doing was wrong. If Hordak was hurting you, then why – what in the world would make you stay? When you could’ve done anything, gone anywhere?”</p>
<p>“Gone with <em>you</em>, you mean.”</p>
<p>“Well, what was your <em>problem</em> with me all of a sudden?” Adora shouts. “You just wanted to beat me for once? You’d never told me any of that before, how was I supposed to – What was ‘really wrong,’ Catra?” From Catra’s face, Adora knows she knows what Adora means. “You kept running after power beyond all reason, so what was the <em>reason</em>? Were you really just playing along to get back at them? Did you want everyone to see what you could do and let you play with the big guns?”</p>
<p>“Big talk for someone who always did exactly as she was told because she was afraid people would <em>stop</em> seeing what she could do and letting her play at being a hero.”</p>
<p>Adora grabs Catra by the front of her jumpsuit and reels her in, almost lifting her off her feet. Catra goes easily, like she did at Princess Prom, like she’s keeping plausible deniability, but this time there’s no triumph in her sneer –</p>
<p>And she is very close. Like she was at the top of the Frost Palace, when Adora grabbed her to keep her from falling, face just inches away from Adora’s own.</p>
<p>“Let. Go of me,” Catra says, voice low and dangerous.</p>
<p>Adora’s hands spasm.</p>
<p>
  <em>You must let go.</em>
</p>
<p>Why is it always a cliff face, with them?</p>
<p>She feels a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got this, Adora,” says Netossa’s voice. Adora’s fingers go numb and Catra slides out of her hands.</p>
<p>“Why do you care, anyway?” Catra snaps, stepping around her. “I thought you were done with me.” She stomps away through the library, and Spinnerella and Netossa share a quick look. Spinnerella goes after Catra, and Netossa squeezes Adora’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” she asks.</p>
<p>And she is, isn’t she? Catra walks away, and Adora counts her footsteps, like a reflex, like muscle memory, but that’s all it is, isn’t it? Catra used up her last chance long ago, Adora can’t trust her anymore, so does it matter what was really wrong?</p>
<p>George clears his throat. “I think I...had better make sure they have everything they need,” he says, and walks after Spinnerella.</p>
<p>Bow comes up to Adora. “Are you okay?” he repeats.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Adora says. Her hands are still numb. “Yeah, I’m fine.”</p>
<p>“Do you...want to look at the rest of the scrolls about Runestones? I think if we find enough information, we stand a real chance at being able to dismantle the Heart.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Adora says – the third time. She shakes herself. “Good idea.”</p>
<p>“I’ll make some tea,” Lance says gently.</p>
<p>By the time he comes back, Bow has laid out a stack of thin books and a small mountain of scrolls over a large coffee table and sat next to Adora on a very comfortable couch. He’s making notes on his tracker pad, and Netossa is standing by a nearby window, flipping through a large tomb, but Adora’s just staring down at the same page of her book, the words blurring together.</p>
<p>Lance sets a cup of tea in front of her. “It’s difficult, fighting with a friend,” he soothes.</p>
<p>“She’s not my friend,” Adora responds, automatic. She doesn’t look up from her book.</p>
<p>Lance sighs. “You both seem to have been through a lot. It’s not fair that the war has done so much damage to people so young.”</p>
<p>“Catra’s done most of that damage,” Adora counters. “She’s the one who burned down Salineas, and the Whispering Woods.”</p>
<p>“Then she has quite a lot to answer for,” Lance says, somehow nonchalant. “In the last year, at least. Before that though...that was other people. People like her, who taught her. And you.”</p>
<p>“But I <em>left</em> when I realized what they were doing!”</p>
<p>“And was that easy?” Lance asks.</p>
<p>Adora’s hand clenches around the cover of the book in her lap.</p>
<p>“Maybe she needed more time than you did,” Lance says.</p>
<p>“She needed to be held prisoner by an inter-stellar warlord to do it?” Adora exclaims. “And in the meantime, make the Horde even more powerful? If the world was already so awful for her, why did she have to add to it? Why did she have to hurt all those people and do so much damage?”</p>
<p>From the corner of her eye, Adora sees Bow carefully pretending not to listen to them. Netossa picks up another book.</p>
<p>“You know,” Lance responds, taking a sip of his own tea. “It took George a while to let go of his anger at the Princesses, even after Bow showed us how much of it was misplaced.”</p>
<p>Adora finally looks up at him, blinking. “But George never hurt anyone.”</p>
<p>“True – well, I think he hit someone in a bar fight once – long story –” he waves a hand – “Regardless. It takes time to work through emotions. None of us will find the answers right away.”</p>
<p>“It’s not the same,” Adora argues.</p>
<p>“It’s never the same for everyone,” Lance concedes, “but it’s also not totally different. Give her time. She can’t atone for her mistakes all at once. And give yourself time. We may have a deadline to save the world, but if we manage to do that, you can work through your feelings at your own pace.”</p>
<p>“Not if Catra keeps blowing things up,” Adora grumbles.</p>
<p>“Has she done anything destructive since she decided to help the Princess Alliance?” Lance asks.</p>
<p>Adora closes her eyes and sees Catra’s hand going to her own throat.</p>
<p>
  <em>Nothing.</em>
</p>
<p>Adora doesn’t answer him.</p>
<p>They spend the rest of the afternoon going through the material Bow collected – or, Bow, Netossa, and Lance go through the material, and every now and again they hand something to Adora to translate, placing it gently into Adora’s still-numb hands.</p>
<p>“Aha!” Bow says, after Adora tells him that the writing at the bottom of a scroll says ‘heart.’ “This is it, this is how a Princess of Plumeria connected to her Runestone the first time!”</p>
<p>“Didn’t you say you were looking to <em>disconnect</em> the Runestones?” his father asks.</p>
<p>Bow grins at him. “I’m sure we can reverse-engineer the process with Entrapta’s help.”</p>
<p>“But would that disconnect the Runestones from each other, or just the Princesses from their Runestones?” Netossa asks.</p>
<p>Adora’s stomach drops. “Like me, after I broke the Sword?”</p>
<p>“That <em>did </em>stop the firing sequence,” Bows says.</p>
<p>She and Bow look at each other for a long moment, and Adora knows – if they’re right, this could work, it really could, but it would mean giving up <em>everything</em>, and how could they even ask the Princesses –</p>
<p>“Hey,” says a voice, and Adora jumps so hard she spills her tea. Spinnerella blinks down at her. “We’re okay on our end, but I think it would be good for Catra to get some fresh air, and we’ll need to leave soon anyway to get back to Brightmoon by nightfall. Have you found what we need?”</p>
<p>Bow shares another look with Adora. “I think so,” he says. “But we’ll need to talk to the others.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella nods. “Okay then. Ready to go?”</p>
<p>Adora looks at Lance one more time, and he smiles at her, taking her hand. “You’re welcome here anytime, Adora. And I hope to see you again soon.”</p>
<p>Adora swallows. “We’ll be back,” she promises, and gets to her feet.</p>
<p>^*^</p>
<p>Adora watches Catra’s back on the walk back through the Woods to Brightmoon. She’s tied up again, but this time Netossa’s walking beside her. Every once in a while, Netossa will murmur something to Catra, but Catra stolidly ignores her.</p>
<p>“What did you talk to her about?” Adora asks Spinnerella, who’s walking beside her.</p>
<p>Spinnerella smiles kindly at her. “That’s not for me to say.”</p>
<p>“It is if she told you anything else about the Horde,” Adora counters.</p>
<p>“If there was something of strategic importance, we’d let you know,” Spinnerella says.</p>
<p>“Anything could be of strategic importance!” Adora argues. “With how little she’s told us, how little we <em>know</em>, <em>anything</em> could be the difference between victory and defeat.”</p>
<p>“That’s not really the kind of thing we talked about.”</p>
<p>Adora glares at the back of Catra’s head. It’s hanging a little, like she’s watching her feet, but her back is straight. And Adora wishes – she used to know what Catra was feeling, just by looking at her. Or she thought she knew. But now she doesn’t know any of it. Anything could be true.</p>
<p>Spinnerella nudges her gently. “I think she just needs some space for now.”</p>
<p>“She needs to tell us what we’re up against!” Adora’s neck is warm and she’s starting to sweat. “Information is the whole reason why she’s here!”</p>
<p>“Not the <em>whole</em> reason,” Spinnerella sympathizes. Adora flinches.</p>
<p>
  <em>I wonder what I could’ve been if I’d gotten rid of you sooner? </em>
</p>
<p>Fine. Fine. If Catra’s not going to tell her anything, then Adora will just figure it out herself, like she always does. She and the Princesses will discover the ins and outs of the space Horde the way they always have, though combat and teamwork and perseverance. Adora doesn’t say anything else the whole way back to Brightmoon. By the time they’ve crossed the bridge and are approaching the castle doors, she feels better. She doesn’t need Catra. The Rebellion doesn’t need Catra, was doing just fine without her. They’ll defeat this threat, just as they’ve defeated everything else the Horde has thrown at them. She doesn’t need to know what happened on Horde Prime’s ship. She doesn’t need to know what happened in Hordak’s lair. Adora doesn’t need to hear a single thing that Catra –</p>
<p>“Adora.” Catra’s voice.</p>
<p>Adora stops.</p>
<p>Catra’s standing just outside the castle doors, the setting sun lighting half her face in gold. The net binding her arms stretches into the castle, but Netossa’s out of sight. “I just wanted...to say,” Catra starts. Adora’s heartbeat spikes, galloping in her ears. Catra’s hands curl into fists at her sides. “About. What George said. He was right. I – blamed you. For a lot of things that weren’t your fault. What I was doing – that was my fault.”</p>
<p>Adora’s trembling. “I know.”</p>
<p>A pause. “I’m sorry,” Catra whispers.</p>
<p>All the breath leaves Adora’s lungs. She presses her lips together.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to say anything,” Catra turns away. “I just – you deserved to hear it, at least.”</p>
<p>And as she walks into the castle, Adora counts her steps again, muscle memory, <em>one, two, three</em>...Adora’s vision goes fuzzy at the edges, but she keeps counting, <em>five, six, seven</em>....</p>
<p>“Adora.” Someone touches her arm. Air suddenly rattles into her lungs and then stays there, trapped. “Hey.” Spinnerella’s voice, close but from another plane of existence. “You’re okay. Let’s sit down.” Adora’s legs collapse, and she falls to the ground, kneeling. “You’re okay,” Spinnerella repeats, hand still on her arm. “Breathe with me, alright? Out for a count of three, then in for a count of three. Ready? One, two...”</p>
<p><em>Three</em>. Adora’s breathe leaves her in a rush and she slumps forward. Spinnerella steadies her gently. “And in again. One...”</p>
<p>Adora breathes in and out to the sound of Spinnerella’s voice, as somewhere on that other plane of existence, time passes. Slowly, the air is easier to breathe, the ground becomes more solid against her knees, and reality realigns itself. “I’m fine,” Adora gulps out eventually, shaking off Spinnerella’s hand. “I – sorry.”</p>
<p>“No need to apologise,” Spinnerella says with a sincerity that Adora could only ever hope to replicate. “Are you ready to go inside, or do you need another minute?”</p>
<p>“Let’s go in,” Adora says, even though she’s certainly not ready, and gets to her feet. It’s dark, now. As she walks through the halls of Brightmoon with Spinnerella, she feels oddly clean and calm. She remembers when she was eleven and the cadets had all had the flu at the same time, and spent a week trying to hide it from Shadow Weaver. Adora had finally had to bolt to the bathroom to hork in the toilet while Catra kept watch outside the door. She’d felt better after that, too.</p>
<p>“We can’t trust Catra,” Adora says as she and Spinnerella arrive outside of Adora’s room – it comes out more serene than she meant it to, like she’s reading it from a piece of paper.</p>
<p>“You say that a lot,” Spinnerella hums, like she’s not really concerned. “Do you want me to stay with you for a while?”</p>
<p>“No, I’m –” Adora swallows. “Thank you. I think I need to be alone for a while.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella nods, and leaves her. Adora goes straight to her bed and collapses onto it. Tries to sleep. She’s watching the early dawn light illuminate her ceiling when Bow and Glimmer come in to see her.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Bow says, sitting next to her on the bed.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Adora says.</p>
<p>“Bow told me what you guys found,” Glimmer says, sitting on her other side.</p>
<p>Adora sits up and looks at them. “We don’t know if it will work.”</p>
<p>Glimmer’s mouth forms a thin line. “We don’t know anything for sure, except that the Heart can never be allowed to activate.”</p>
<p>“I shouldn’t have let it come to this,” Adora croaks out. “There should have been another way. Even without She-Ra –”</p>
<p>“We <em>have</em> She-Ra,” Glimmer interrupts, reaching for Adora’s hand and squeezing it. “And we’re going to need her to teach us how to let our Runestones – our powers – go.”</p>
<p>Tears form in Adora’s eyes, and she takes her hand out of Glimmer’s grip to wipe at them.</p>
<p>Bow wraps them both in a hug. “We’re in this together,” he says, and here, between her best friends, in the safest place on all of Etheria, Adora tries not to think about the first time she promised someone that.</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m sorry.</em>
</p>
<p>And it had even been for the right thing this time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>PSA: Adora is NOT handling Catra’s abuse appropriately. NEVER blame the victim of abuse for what happened to them. I tried to write this as The Adults handling things properly while Adora (who has her own abuse to deal with and shouldn’t be expected to handle Catra’s after everything) but if that’s not how it’s coming across, or it’s just doing something harmful, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.</p>
<p>You can also just let me know other things, like if you also wish Spinnetossa had 1000 % more screen-time</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“You’ll be fine,” Catra says. She looks at Adora, just for a second, and again, Adora is pinned to the spot. “If Adora’s leading you through it, you’ll be fine.”</p><p>Adora’s face heats up, and her stomach twists, and she wants...something. She wants something.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sooooo there’s an Additional Warning this chapter for a traumatic nightmare</p><p>Oh my god this fic was not supposed to be this dark but I SWEAR I’m not trying to break your hearts, we’re almost through, there is light at the end of the tunnel and everyone’s gonna be ok.</p><p>Thanks to everyone reading, and especially to everyone who’s left reviews! It’s so nice right now to just share the experience of angsting and crying over these two lovable disasters. I hope everyone is healthy and safe, and that She-Ra can provide some positive distraction for a while</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“My, my, <em>my</em>,” Double Trouble says, crossing their legs as they take a seat at the council table next to Glimmer. They look around at the assembled Princesses – Mermista, Perfuma, Frosta, Scorpia, Entrapta, Spinnerella, and Netossa, all sitting straight-backed in their chairs with frowns on their faces. “You all seem tense.” Double Trouble’s bound in Netossa’s net, the way Catra had been yesterday, but Adora’s not sure that means they couldn’t get out of it, if they tried. They haven’t tried. “Whatever brought this on?”</p><p>“Oh, I don’t know,” Perfuma huffs. “The end of the world?”</p><p>“No,” Double Trouble says immediately, smirk stealing across their face. “You’ve dealt with that before, and I remember – it was <em>chaos</em>. So what’s got you now?” Their eyes flick over to Catra, standing by the wall. Perfuma and Mermista grimace.</p><p>“I’m more concerned with what’s got <em>you</em>,” Catra says. She strides forward and swings herself onto the council table in front of Double Trouble. “I seem to remember you saying you only pick the winning side. And yet here you are, with us, when there’s a giant spaceship hovering in the sky.”</p><p>“It doesn’t look good, does it?” Double Trouble agrees. “Is there any particular reason you Princesses haven’t used your super-weapon against it yet?”</p><p>Adora, Bow, and Glimmer look at each other. Spinnerella and Netossa each shoot looks at Perfuma, Mermista and Frosta.</p><p>“That’s not your concern,” Catra says, crossing her legs and nudging Double Trouble with her foot. “All you have to worry about it helping me get some sensitive cargo off of that warship.”</p><p>“Catra,” Glimmer warns. “What are you thinking?”</p><p>Catra smirks and leans over her legs, into Double Trouble’s space. “I’m thinking that if Horde Prime ever saw me on his ship again, he’d throw me into the brig for questioning.”</p><p>“Okay...” Glimmer says, and Adora’s whole lower half turns to led.</p><p>Catra’s fingers move up to Double Trouble’s face, a canine peaking through her smirk, but then suddenly her eyes widen and she snatches her hand back, leaning away. Double Trouble tracks the movement through narrowed eyes, and Adora feels the phantom press of a hand at her throat. “And...” Catra continues, clearing her throat, “I’m thinking that Double Trouble could escape the brig in two seconds, impersonate whoever they want, and get to wherever we need on the ship.”</p><p>Double Trouble watches Catra carefully. “And why would I do that?”</p><p>Catra looks dead into Double Trouble’s eyes. “Because I’ve <em>been</em> on that ship, and I’ve <em>seen</em> the other side in this fight. There’s no one to pit against each other in Horde Prime’s army. You work for him, or he brainwashes you and you work for him anyway. You could run, maybe, but you could only hide as another subservient Prime clone. Not just playing one, but <em>stuck</em> as one, forever, unable to change into anything else, or ever be yourself again. And that’s not what you want – is it.”</p><p>Double Trouble shivers, just for an instant, and glares at Catra. “I’m not sure I like the way I’ve rubbed off on you,” they say, and it sounds much more like an admission that Adora thinks it’s supposed to.</p><p>Mermista groans. “Isn’t trusting <em>one</em> enemy enough in this mess?”</p><p>Glimmer sighs. “Catra’s right. She and I barely made it off Horde Prime’s ship the first time. Double Trouble’s the only one who has a chance of getting the power he stole from me and getting away again.”</p><p>“Oh?” Double Trouble’s ears perk up. “Have you lost some of your sparkle, Princess?”</p><p>“Yes,” Glimmer admits. “And it’s what I need you to get back for me. Or just – get out of Horde Prime’s hands.”</p><p>“And into <em>no one</em> else’s,” Catra growls pointedly.</p><p>Double Trouble blinks, serpentine eyelids sliding inwards and then out again as they look from Catra to Glimmer. “Well this certainly isn’t the budding relationship I was expecting,” they say, and something hot and uncomfortable squirms around in Adora’s gut.</p><p>“Yeah, none of us are fans,” Mermista says.</p><p>“Even if Double Trouble <em>does</em> help us, Glimmer, it’s a lot to put all of our faith in,” Perfuma says. She turns to Bow and Adora. “Did you find anything at your Dads’ library that could help us with the Runestones?”</p><p>Bow glances at Glimmer, then squares his shoulders. “There is a way to disconnect the Runestones from each other. But – it comes at a cost.”</p><p>“A cost?” Perfuma balks. “Isn’t giving up some of our power enough? What else could we possibly –”</p><p>“We have to sever out ties with our Runestones completely,” Frosta interrupts, “don’t we?”</p><p>Perfuma gasps. Everyone goes quiet, staring from Frosta to Bow.</p><p>Bow looks at the table. “Yes.”</p><p>“No,” Mermista says. “No way. How would we protect Etheria without our powers?”</p><p>“You’d still have your powers once you learned to use them again,” Netossa says. “From what we found out, it seems that Runestone Princesses could control the elements <em>before</em> they built the Runestones. Your elemental powers would stay intact.”</p><p>“It was the First Ones who built the Runestones for the Heart, so they could harness your powers,” Bow explains. “But your powers came first. You don’t <em>need </em>the Runestones.”</p><p>“Yes we do!” Perfuma flings out her arms. “<em>I</em> do. I’ve never – we’ve <em>always</em> had the Heart Blossom in my family, always taught the next Princess how to access its power.”</p><p>“You really don’t have any stories from before that?” Bow asks. Perfuma hesitates, and Bow looks to Mermista.</p><p>“My Dad never told me how it worked,” Mermista admits. “I’ve just...always been able to wield ocean magic.”</p><p>Frosta looks down at her hands. “I had to figure things out mostly by myself, since my parents died when I was so young. It felt like – like merging a part of myself with my Runestone. I don’t know how else to explain it.”</p><p>“I only just connected to mine.” Scorpia’s voice wavers.  “And it felt like – like I was connecting to my <em>family </em>again. I don’t want to lose that.”</p><p>“The Runestones are still yours,” Spinnerella says, sudden steel in her voice. “Even if they’re First Ones tech, your families still forged connections to them over generations. They <em>are yours</em>. They’re just not the source of your magic.”</p><p>“We won’t let the Horde take them,” Bow says, “but we can’t let Horde Prime hack into them, either. We need to take them offline, or he’ll destroy the whole planet, and use it to destroy <em>other </em>planets. We can figure the rest out later.”</p><p>“But...disconnecting from our Runestones...how would that even work?” Mermista asks.</p><p>“Adora?” Glimmer looks to her. “You’re the only one who’s ever done it.”</p><p>“I –” Adora’s chest squeezes, and she hugs her arms around her middle. “I don’t know. It was heat of the moment, I...just couldn’t let the Sword fire the Heart. I fought against it and...I guess the Runestone couldn’t take the pressure.”</p><p>
  <em>I won’t be controlled. </em>
</p><p>“But how did you let that piece of yourself go?” Perfuma says, voice shaking.</p><p>
  <em>I am not a piece of their machine.</em>
</p><p>“Didn’t you feel it trying to use you?” Adora asks. “The Heart, when it was trying to fire, it reached inside me...tried to make me what it wanted....”</p><p>The Princesses look at each other.</p><p>
  <em>I am not a weapon.</em>
</p><p>Scorpia exhales. “When I connected to the Black Garnet...it felt like coming home again. Like I was finally who I was supposed to be.” She lifts her head. “But I’m not <em>supposed</em> to be anything, am I? I can chose who I want to be, just like I chose to go find Entrapta, just like I’m choosing to help you now.”</p><p>Perfuma twists a strand of her hair into a rope and grips it tight. “Coming home...that’s exactly what it feels like. When I first met She-Ra, and I was losing the Heart Blossom, it felt like a piece of me was dying...to have that back was <em>everything</em>. And you want us to give that up now? When we need it most?”</p><p>“It’s not real,” Catra murmurs. “It’s just First Ones tech, and they didn’t give a shit about you.”</p><p>Perfuma twists her hair hard enough that a couple of strands break and float down to the table. “It <em>is</em> real. The way my parent taught me to use it – that was <em>real</em>.” Tears gather in her eyes, and Mermista carefully lays her hand on Perfuma’s arm.</p><p>“Because they <em>did</em> care about you,” Glimmer says. “And that won’t go away! It doesn’t matter if the Runestones don’t care about us, because <em>we </em>care about <em>each other</em>. <em>That’s</em> real. We know it is. We can depend on each other, keep each other going, Runestones or no.”</p><p>Frosta’s mouth sets in a line. “We’re stronger together,” she affirms. “We can do this.”</p><p>Perfuma takes a shaky breath in and out, glances at Mermista, who nods at her. “We can try,” Perfuma says.</p><p>“You’ll be fine,” Catra says. She looks at Adora, just for a second, and again, Adora is pinned to the spot. “If Adora’s leading you through it, you’ll be fine.”</p><p>Adora’s face heats up, and her stomach twists, and she wants...something. She wants something.</p><p>“This is all very touching,” Double Trouble interjects. “But if you’re all here disconnecting from your Runestones, who’s going to help me? I may be the best there is, but I am <em>not</em> going into the Headquarters of an evil, unknown empire alone.”</p><p>“Of course you’re not,” Catra scoffs. “Even with your powers to hide you, Horde Prime will be expecting something. You’ll need a distraction.”</p><p>“No,” Adora says, before Catra can get any further. “Absolutely not.”</p><p>“Are you sure?” Glimmer asks instead. “You just escaped from there.”</p><p>“Which means I know how to get back on board,” Catra says. “I can take Double Trouble up in Mara’s ship and keep Horde Prime occupied long enough for Double Trouble to break the container and get into an escape pod.”</p><p>“I can’t ask that of you,” Glimmer says, shaking her head.</p><p>Catra almost smiles. “You didn’t. I offered.”</p><p>There’s a pressure squeezing its way from Adora’s stomach up her esophagus. “I said <em>no</em>.”</p><p>“Adora,” Glimmer sighs.</p><p>“We can’t <em>trust </em>her!” Adora explodes. “Maybe this has been her plan all along.” Adora points between Catra and Double Trouble. “She knows we have to keep an eye on her at all times, and with Double Trouble impersonating her, think how hard that will be!”</p><p>Double Trouble raises an eyebrow at her. “Worried she’ll slip out on you while you’re chasing me? I admit my performance is precise enough to fool even you, but if you spent less time chasing and more time observing, you might be able to spot the difference.”</p><p>Adora slams her hands down on the table in front of Double Trouble, but has no follow up.</p><p>“Adora,” Glimmer says. “How could this have been <em>anyone’s</em> plan all along?”</p><p>Adora’s fingers curl into fists against the tabletop. “Catra’s always been one step ahead of us,” she says.</p><p>“Neither of them have anywhere else to go,” Glimmer continues, “and we have no one else to help us.”</p><p>“It doesn’t make sense to put <em>two</em> untrustworthy agents in pivotal roles that far away from supervision,” Adora says around gritted teeth.</p><p>“If we’re dismantling the Heart ourselves, they’re not really pivotal,” Mermista points out. “I actually prefer this.”</p><p>“We aren’t in a position to be choosy,” Bow argues. “And Catra <em>is</em> the best at distractions.”</p><p>“Guah!” Adora yells, because there’s nothing she can say to any of that. “What about you?”</p><p>“What about who?” Catra snaps.</p><p>“You! How are <em>you</em> getting off Horde Prime’s ship?”</p><p>Catra looks to the side. “I’ll find a way out.”</p><p>“Three days ago you told us that Horde Prime is an unstoppable force, and now you think you can outrun him by yourself? That’s a terrible plan! Aren’t you supposed to be good t at this? Come up with something else!”</p><p>“Adora!” Glimmer pleads. “Calm down!”</p><p>“Catra’s gotten out of tight spots before,” Frosta decides. “If she thinks she can handle this, then she probably can.”</p><p>“See?” Catra sneers. “This is what I’m good for, Adora.”</p><p>Adora <em>roars</em>. “You’re not a <em>thing</em>, Catra! And you’re not invulnerable! I can’t let you do this!”</p><p>“<em>Let</em> me? I’m not <em>asking</em> for your help,” Catra spits, eyebrows coming down and forehead creasing, and this familiar ground, at least. This is Catra leaning in, digging in, looking Adora dead in the eye. “I’ll do this myself like I do everything else if I have to –”</p><p>“You <em>don’t </em>have to!” Adora shouts. “That’s the whole point of the Princess Alliance! We do things together!”</p><p>“<em>I’m not a Princess</em>!”</p><p>“Because no one told you you <em>should</em> be?” Adora retorts, and Catra reels back like Adora’s slapped her.</p><p>Adora’s punched her, before.</p><p>Everything stills. Adora’s heart pounds into the silence, <em>one, two, three...</em></p><p>But Catra’s still looking at her. “I’m not helpless, Adora.”</p><p>Adora swallows, pushes the heels of her palms into her eyes. Glimmer puts a hand on her shoulder. “Adora,” she starts.</p><p>“No,” Adora says, voice breaking. “No.”</p><p>“I’ll go, too,” Entrapta pipes up, and Adora’s breath shakes as she lifts her head from her hands. “Catra’s very good at distractions, but Adora’s right: she shouldn’t go alone. I’ll go with her.”</p><p>“No,” Catra says immediately. “You...don’t have to do that.”</p><p>Entrapta’s pigtails arrange themselves like huge hands that clasp nervously in front of her. “I need to go find Hordak anyway,” she says, and Adora feels every muscle in her body tense. Catra looks like she’s about to bolt. “We can all escape together.”</p><p>Catra’s face twists and she flexes her claws like she’s getting ready to fight instead. “Fine. But you keep him the hell away from me.”</p><p>Entrapta raises her welding mask halfway up and peeks out from under it. “I don’t think there’s a need for you two to fight, if you just –“</p><p>“<em>No</em>,” Adora growls at the same time Catra does.</p><p>They look at each other. Adora opens her mouth to continue but Catra’s claws dig into the table with a sharp screech and she closes it again. Catra turns to Entrapta. “I may owe <em>you</em> everything –” she shakes her head. “Anything except <em>that</em>. I’ll do whatever you need me to do. But you keep him <em>away from me.</em>”</p><p>Entrapta meets Catra’s eyes for a long moment. “Okay. I don’t get it, but – okay.”</p><p>Slowly, the fight-or-flight leaves Catra’s shoulders, and she nods.</p><p>
  <em>He wouldn’t have used it on Entrapta. </em>
</p><p>“But –” Adora starts.</p><p>“It’s fine, Adora. Entrapta can do what she wants,” Catra says, like she’s the one who gets to decide when they’re done arguing, which after everything, is just –</p><p>“So, what, you expect me to just stay here and do nothing and trust that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain?” Adora snaps.</p><p>Catra’s ears flatten back, but she’s not looking at Adora anymore.</p><p>“You won’t be doing nothing, Adora,” Glimmer says gently. “You’ll be helping us.”</p><p>“You don’t need me to disconnect from your Runestones,” Adora points out.</p><p>Glimmer comes over to her and takes her hand. “Not magically, maybe – but you’re our center, Adora. You’re our support. And we need it now, more than ever.”</p><p>Adora swallows. Glimmer’s looking at her like she used to, back before the first Battle of Brightmoon, like she believes Adora can do anything in the world. And Adora tries to look back at her friend, her <em>Queen</em>, who brought them all together from across Etheria, who gave them something to fight for, and believe that Glimmer somehow needs her to be their <em>center</em>.</p><p>“Glimmer’s right, Adora,” Perfuma adds, getting to her feet to join them. “Sword or no, your power brought us together. We need you here with us.”</p><p>Mermista and Frosta nod at her, and Adora finds herself surrounded by Princesses, by <em>friends</em>, who somehow, despite everything, want her with them, here at the end of this giant mess that she’s created. Adora sees them smile at her and tries to smile back, but before she can stop herself, she glances up at Catra. Catra’s head is down, in some sort of silent conversation with Double Trouble, but her eyes flick to Adora, just for an instant, and in that moment Adora would give anything to be able to read her expressions like she used to. Then, something in Catra’s eyes flicker, and she gives Adora a tiny nod before she looks away. Adora doesn’t know what it means.</p><p> “Okay,” she says.</p><p>“Okay!” Glimmer repeats, confident, and squeezes Adora’s hand as she looks around at everyone. “Catra, Entrapta, and Double Trouble will leave on Mara’s ship first thing in the morning. Scorpia and Adora will lead the Runestone Princesses in disconnecting from our power sources, and Bow, Spinnerella, and Netossa will secure the defences around Brightmoon. Is everyone agreed?”</p><p>Perfuma nods. Frosta summons her ice fists and nudges Scorpia, who nudges her back.</p><p>Mermista puts her hands on her hips. “Let’s show these space creeps what we’re made of.”</p><p> “For the rebellion!” Bow cheers.</p><p>“For the rebellion!” echoes in the chamber, and for one, shining instant, it all seems possible.</p><p>*^*</p><p>The tunnels in the Fright Zone are narrow, and the shadows are long – Adora likes to keep to the more open spaces. But Catra’s always had a knack for exploring.</p><p>“See? Look,” Catra’s poking at a particularly large pebble in her outstretched palm. “This one almost looks like the Black Garnet.”</p><p>Adora shoves her, just enough so that Catra has to drop the pebbles to keep her balance. “Hey!” Catra screeches.</p><p>“You’re not supposed to know what the Black Garnet looks like.”</p><p>“So? I do. What am I supposed to do, just erase it from my memories?” Catra rolls her eyes, but Adora’s stomach clenches. Some people say Shadow Weaver can erase memories. Some people say she can read minds and make people do things they don’t want to do.</p><p>“Just don’t talk about it! What if Shadow Weaver hears you?”</p><p>“So?” Catra repeats, and a shadow falls over her.</p><p>“Adora,” intones Shadow Weaver, and Adora scrambles to her feet, saluting. Shadow Weaver chuckles and pats her head. “At ease. I just wanted to make sure you’d completed all your assignments for today, even the extra ones.”</p><p>“I did!” Adora assures her, smiling. “Catra, too, she helped me solve the one –”</p><p>“You cannot rely on Catra,” Shadow Weaver’s voice goes dark.</p><p>“Why not?”</p><p>Shadow Weaver shakes her head. “No one should know that much about the Black Garnet, Adora.”</p><p>Adora’s stomach twists, and she spins to look behind her. Catra’s gone. “Catra?” she calls, voice high and cracking. “Catra!”</p><p>“I couldn’t have her corrupting you, Adora,” Shadow Weaver explains.</p><p>Adora spins back to her. “Bring her back! Please! Please bring her back, Shadow Weaver, I promise I’ll keep her away from the Black Garnet room, she’ll be good I swear –”</p><p>“Shhh,” Shadow Weaver sooths, one of her hands glowing red and coming down to cup Adora’s face. “You won’t have to worry about her anymore. You won’t have to think of her ever agai –</p><p>Adora bolts awake, gasping, blood pounding through her veins. A dream. Just a dream. But the room is dark and empty. She stumbles out of bed, pulls on a pair of pants and throws her jacket on over her night shirt, sprints out the room. The dim lights are blue here, not green, but the shadows still run long – she doesn’t stop until she reaches Catra’s room. She goes for the door handle but a spark shoots up her hand, driving it back. The barrier. The barrier <em>she’d</em> put up.</p><p>“Catra!” she shouts, heedless of the guards on either side of the door. “<em>Catra</em>!”</p><p>The door stays closed. One of the guards takes a tentative step forward.</p><p>Adora’s heartbeat pounds in her ears. “<em>Catra</em>!” she screams.</p><p>The door is yanked open. On its other side, Catra stands, shoulders sagging, light from the barrier spell bouncing off her half-open eyes. “<em>What</em>, Adora?”</p><p>Adora’s knees land suddenly on the ground. Catra’s eyes widen, and she stiffens, standing above Adora with that confused little frown –</p><p>“Catra,” Adora sobs, and Catra blurs in front of her as tears stream down Adora’s cheeks.</p><p>“Woah, hey,” Catra says, falling onto the floor on the other side of the glowing doorway. “Adora. What’s wrong.”</p><p>“Nothing,” Adora says, panting. She wipes at her cheeks. “Nothing.”</p><p>Catra frowns harder. She reaches a hand, covered in fine, soft fur, towards Adora, then stops. “Adora.”</p><p>Adora shakes her head frantically.</p><p>“Adora, seriously. You’re freaking me out. What’s going on? Are you –”</p><p>“Just!” snaps Adora. “<em>Stop</em>. Just, stay there, a second, I need to – just stay, <em>please</em> –”</p><p>“Okay,” Catra says quickly. She sits down, cross-legged, across from Adora. “Okay, fine.”</p><p>So Adora just breathes, ragged breaths in and out, and looks at her. The blue light from the barrier spell makes Catra’s hair look green, throws her face into shadow like the lights of the Fright Zone used to. She’s not looking at Adora, but Adora can still see her eyes, yellow and blue, bright in the dark. Eventually, Adora’s breathing evens out.</p><p>“Shadow Weaver dream?” Catra asks, like she doesn’t expect an answer.</p><p>Adora sags. “How did you know?” How does she always know?</p><p>“Because they’re fucking terrifying,” Catra says.</p><p>“You get them too?” Adora asks.</p><p>It takes a while for Catra to answer, but when she does it sounds like someone has taken a brick off her chest. “All the time.”</p><p>Adora swallows. “I thought you thought I wanted to be her favourite.”</p><p>“You did,” Catra replies, “but I get it now.”</p><p>Adora tries to feel her hands, digs her nails into her palms until they hurt. “I should hate you,” she says. She’s sounds like she’s complaining.</p><p>“Yeah, you should.”</p><p>And it’s true. But she’s so tired. “I never tried,” she admits.</p><p>She hears the sound of Catra’s nails scratching against the floor. “I almost followed you,” Catra says, “when I came back without you and all Shadow Weaver did was yell at me for it. But then Hordak offered me the promotion, and I –” her voice catches.</p><p>“Wanted to be Shadow Weaver’s favourite,” Adora finishes for her.</p><p>“Wanted to hurt you,” Catra finishes for herself.</p><p>Adora’s throat squeezes hard and two more tears spill down her cheeks. “She threatened to take you away,” Adora whispers, voice cracking. “Shadow Weaver. In my dream. Sometimes I forget she used to do that.”</p><p>A beat of silence. “You never told me that. I knew, but you never told me.”</p><p>Adora nods, sniffling and wiping at her nose with her wrist. “I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want to scare you.” She swallows. “I didn’t want you to run away.”</p><p>She almost feels Catra’s sharp intake of breath through the air between them, almost hears her chewing on her tongue. “You didn’t want to lose me,” Catra says.</p><p>Adora sags against the doorframe. She really is so tired.</p><p>“I used that against you,” Catra continues.</p><p>“Why,” Adora asks, one more time, and this time it’s barely a whisper. “What were you saying?”</p><p>Catra is silent for a long time. “I was saying, ‘stay with me,’” she confesses into the dark.</p><p>
  <em>Stay with me, okay?</em>
</p><p>But –</p><p>“That’s what <em>I</em> was saying to <em>you</em>,” Adora points out. “I said it so many times. Why did you never listen?”</p><p>“I said it first,” Catra says, like she’s telling her a secret.</p><p>
  <em>Why are you doing this?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Because you left me!</em>
</p><p>Has it always been that simple?</p><p>“That’s not fair,” Adora croaks.</p><p>“I know,” Catra whispers. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>The tension leaves Adora like from a punctured balloon. <em>I’m sorry.</em> Three times to confirm. It shouldn’t be enough. It’s not. But something in Adora calms, this time. She closes her eyes, breathes out. Opens her eyes again just to make sure Catra is still there.</p><p>“I’ll come back,” Catra says, because somehow, still, she knows. “You don’t have to let me stay here, but. I’ll come back from the mission. I’m not alone anymore, that’s what you said, right? I’ll come back.”</p><p>
  <em>Three times.</em>
</p><p>Adora looks at her. Just...looks at her. At her two shining eyes, one blue, one yellow, both brighter than anything else in the world. “You promise?” she says, and Catra finally looks back at her.</p><p>“I can’t promise something like that,” Catra says. She scratches a circle into the floor with her claw. “You figured that out before I did. But I <em>want</em> to come back. I’ll do everything I can.”</p><p>Adora tries to swallow down the lump in her throat. Gives up. Keeps looking at Catra, at the blue-green glow of the barrier spell reflecting off her hair, shining in her eyes. There’s no way to keep her here. There’s never been any way to keep her away from somewhere she was determined to get to, and doesn’t Adora have the scars to prove it. “Everything?” she asks.</p><p>“Everything.”</p><p>Adora nods. She doesn’t get up. A new shift of guards comes to relieve the ones stationed outside the door, standing tall on either side of it as their fellows shuffle off to bed. And still Adora sits there in front of Catra.</p><p>“You can sleep here if you want,” Catra whispers, and Adora doesn’t mean to, but she can’t convince herself to stop looking at Catra, and when she wakes up sunlight is pouring through the hall and her neck is sore and her legs are cramped and her butt is asleep.</p><p>And Catra is still there. Curled up in a ball on the other side of the door, snoring softly, Catra is still there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>...and breathe out.</p><p>Imagine being a Brightmoon guard though, like what a life; after watching the five billionth drama unfold while they just stand there, they probably need like eight vacations.</p><p>Thank you for reading! I know there was a lot of angst to get this far and I appreciate you sticking with me. If you feel so inclined, please consider leaving comments or kudos, or reblogging this fic on tumblr (I'm iwouldgetaniguana there, too)</p><p>Have a nice She-Ra Season 5 Eve-Eve, everyone!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Adora doesn’t say anything. After a moment, Catra moves like she’s going to walk away, and Adora can’t–</p>
<p>She reaches out and takes Catra’s forearm. Catra stills, and so does Adora. Catra looks back at her, eyebrows raised. “I,” Adora says, curling her fingers around Catra’s wrist. “I, um.”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone who’s come this far with me, and to everyone who’s leaving comments – they’re keeping me going, riding this catradora train to the last stop.</p>
<p>now is the time whereupon you judge if the ending is satisfying enough for all the pain I have hitherto put you through. Treat me gently.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adora sits in the armory in the early-morning light and listens to Spinnerella and Netossa prepare to defend Brightmoon, as she herself sharpens her sword. Her regular sword. Her non-She-Ra, non-planet-killing sword. It feels too light, too small in her hand. Just a simple, symmetrical blade that she can lift with ease. Its blade doesn’t reflect her image like a mirror, and there’s no magical stone to adorn the hilt. It’s...just a sword.</p>
<p>Glimmer walks up to her, peers at her carefully. “Are you <em>sure</em> you don’t want to –”</p>
<p>“I’m sure,” Adora says, and her stomach clenches violently. “I’m good.”</p>
<p>Glimmer sighs, but squeezes her shoulder. “Okay. I’ll meet you in the council room with the other Princesses after Mara’s ship takes off.”</p>
<p>Adora nods down at the murky light reflecting off her blade.</p>
<p>“Are you ladies ready?” Glimmer asks Spinnerella and Netossa, who look up from a particularly sharp-looking weighted net to address her.</p>
<p>“Just about,” Spinnerella says. “We’re mustering the Rebel forces on the steps of the castle in half an hour. Scouts still haven’t reported any unified Horde activity, but the bandits and rogues will no doubt see the Moonstone go out when you disconnect from it.”</p>
<p>Glimmer’s mouth twists.</p>
<p>“Don’t you worry about that,” King Micah says. “I’ve increased the strength of the spells all along the perimeter. We might have a fight on our hands, but it won’t get to you.”</p>
<p>“And I gotta say,” Netossa says, lifting the net appreciatively. “You did pretty well smuggling weapons in here all these years. We’re prepared for pretty much anything the remnants of the Horde can throw at us.”</p>
<p>“Good,” Glimmer says, clasping her hands together. “And Entrapta showed Bow how to read her enhancements to the laser canon schematics, just in case...” she takes a breath. “Well, just in case.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella and Netossa nod solemnly at her, and Glimmer nods solemnly back. They were trained for this – for combat, for consequences, all of them, their whole lives. So was Adora. But she knows if she tried a nod like that now, a nod she’s given a hundred times before, she would throw up.</p>
<p>Glimmer salutes the room, and everyone in the armory bows. King Micah takes Glimmer by the shoulders. “I’m so proud of you,” he says, tears in his eyes, and then he adds “Your Majesty,” and Glimmer looks like she’s about to cry too, but instead she grips his hand and squeezes for, one, two, three seconds, and then walks out of the room, chin high and stance proud.</p>
<p>King Micah watches her go, shoulders slumping in her wake. “I’m just also so worried.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got her,” Adora rushes to say, jumping up. “Your Highness, this won’t be easy for her, but I won’t let her go through it alone. She can do this.”</p>
<p>King Micah smiles at her, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I know.”</p>
<p>Netossa steps forward and puts a hand on his shoulder. “And we’ve got <em>you</em>. We’ll make sure you’re reunited with your daughter once more.”</p>
<p>“Truly, I am fortunate to be fighting alongside the bravest warriors in Etheria,” King Micah responds, with a nod to her and Spinnerella. “Thank you for never giving up on the Alliance.”</p>
<p>Spinnerella and Netossa look at each other. Netossa reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind Spinnerella’s ear, and Spinnerella reaches up to press Netossa’s hand to her cheek and hold it there. They smile at each other, and it occurs to Adora, that this was probably – how they met. The first Princess Alliance, when they were so much younger, and had so much to lose in front of them.</p>
<p>Netossa grasps Spinnerella’s hand and holds it between them, faces King Micah. “Princesses don’t give up on each other,” she says, like a pronouncement, a vow, and the fire in Spinnerella’s eyes when she looks at her wife could power the Moonstone for a decade.</p>
<p>Adora’s stomach heaves up, and she doubles over, dry hacking at the floor.</p>
<p>“Adora?” King Micah’s hand comes to rest on her shoulder. “Are you feeling ill?”</p>
<p>“I – have to go,” Adora says, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and straightening. She gets one more look at Spinnerella and Netossa, both concerned and still holding hands, and then bolts from the room.</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>Mara’s ship is parked in what used to be the Royal Gardens, because that’s where Adora and Bow crashed it on their way back to Brightmoon. Bow and Entrapta have fixed it up but it’s still obvious what happened – there are gouges in the lawn as tall as Horde tanks, and all of the surrounding shrubbery has been reduced to ask. The glass of the greenhouse that Shadow Weaver had been using lies shattered on the ground. But the ship itself is ready for launch, the loading plank down as Entrapta coaxes Emily onboard.</p>
<p>Catra is standing to the side, her hands caught between Glimmer’s. Adora can’t hear what they’re saying, but their heads are bowed close to each other, their gazes hard, their fingers twined tightly. Adora’s stomach roles again, but she manages to keep it down.</p>
<p>Glimmer stands up on her toes to hug Catra, and Catra puts her arms around Glimmer’s shoulders. Nudges her side with a smirk as they part, and Glimmer nudges her right back, and for a second they look almost relaxed, but then Catra turns, and sees –</p>
<p>Scorpia. Who is now walking towards her with purpose. Glimmer squeezes Catra’s hand one more time and retreats.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Scorpia says, and Adora can hear her, possibly because Scorpia has never been quiet a day in her life.</p>
<p>Catra’s face spasms. In the shadows cast by Mara’s ship, she looks smaller, somehow. “Hey.”</p>
<p>“I, uh.” Scorpia stops in front of Catra and scratches the back of her neck with the side of her claw. “I wanted to wish you luck.”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” Catra says, turning her face away.</p>
<p>“I know we haven’t...haven’t actually talked much,” Scorpia continues.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to talk to me,” Catra says.</p>
<p>Scorpia’s shoulders slump, and she starts fidgeting. “Look, I – it’s not that don’t want...I want you to know that, even past the mission, I just want you to be okay. Like, I think you’ve been through a lot and you deserve the chance to be okay. I’m just...not ready yet. To be part of that.”</p>
<p>“You don’t owe me anything, Scorpia.” Catra’s hands are clenched fists at her sides, and she’s looking at the dirt as though she wants to burry something there.</p>
<p>“I know,” says Scorpia, and then falters.</p>
<p>Catra’s arms come up to clasp around her middle. “Good.”</p>
<p>“But...I still think you’re really talented, and that you’ve got this. The mission, and figuring out how to fix things after this. I really believe you can do it, even if I keep my distance.”</p>
<p>Catra sniffles sharply, swiping at her eye. “That. Kind of thing. Meant more to me than I ever told you.” She rubs at her other eye. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you properly.”</p>
<p>Scorpia smiles, small but firm. “Okay.”</p>
<p>Catra rattles a breath in, then out again. “Okay,” she agrees, and gives Scorpia a smile back, small and flighty, like a bird.</p>
<p>Past them, Adora sees Double Trouble walking up the gangplank and into the ship. Double Trouble catches her eye, lifts an eyebrow, and then keeps walking.</p>
<p>Scorpia turns and walks away but Adora doesn’t see where she goes because her legs are moving and suddenly she is right in front of Catra, and Catra’s standing ramrod straight like Adora’s managed to sneak up on her for once.</p>
<p><em>Didn’t expect to see me?</em> Is what comes to mind to say, because that’s what she would have said, if Catra were still the enemy. If Adora knew how this conversation was going to go.</p>
<p>But she doesn’t, and she just sort of stands there, glaring at Catra, and Catra’s startled look of guilt slowly falls and settles into something resembling the kind of amusement she has where Adora is the butt of the joke, but – softer. “I said I’ll be fine, Adora.”</p>
<p>Adora doesn’t say anything. After a moment, Catra moves like she’s going to walk away, and Adora can’t–</p>
<p>She reaches out and takes Catra’s forearm. Catra stills, and so does Adora. Catra looks back at her, eyebrows raised. “I,” Adora says, curling her fingers around Catra’s wrist. “I, um.”</p>
<p>They stare at each other a long time. Adora feels like she’s not breathing, like the only way to understand the concept is to see the gentle rise and fall of Catra’s chest. She loses count of the number of times Catra blinks, but Catra doesn’t look away. She stares back, her gaze roaming over Adora but always landing back at her eyes, and a shot fires up Adora’s spine every time it does. It’s not at all how she’s used to looking at Catra, and yet it feels familiar...have they always stared at each other like this?</p>
<p>And slowly, slowly, Catra moves her hand to take Adora’s. Adora lets her. Shooting furtive glances at Adora’s face, Catra slowly, slowly brings Adora’s hand up and holds it to her chest. Still, Adora lets her.</p>
<p>“Adora, I –” Catra looks away from Adora, then back, away again, and back again, like she can’t work up the courage to do either for more than an instant.</p>
<p>“What,” Adora asks.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” Catra says, and every muscle in Adora’s body prepares for this to be the most important thing Catra’s ever said to her. “I – I don’t expect anything. But. Since you want answers.” Catra takes a deep breath, and one last look at Adora’s face, then slowly, slowly, brings Adora’s wrist to her lips, and kisses her there.</p>
<p>Adora can feel every inch of her skin, from her scalp to the bottoms of her feet in that one instant. And then Catra pulls away. Adora makes some sort of sound, but Catra doesn’t look at her again. She squeezes her hand as she lets it go, whispers, “I’m sorry,” and then boards the ship.</p>
<p>For every step away that she takes, Adora counts four beats of her heart.</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m sorry.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Three times to confirm. </em>
</p>
<p>But four is – what is four times?</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>Catra – Mara’s ship – left an hour ago, and Horde Prime’s ship hasn’t moved. They’re hoping that’s a good thing. They’re hoping that means Horde Prime doesn’t consider them a threat, instead of that he’s set a trap. They’re hoping he’s still there because he’s not ready to make a move with Glimmer’s power yet.</p>
<p>They’re hoping a lot of things.</p>
<p>And also rearranging furniture. Adora, Glimmer, Mermista, Perfuma, Frosta, and Scorpia clear the council room’s table and the chairs to the sides, placing them snug against the murals, and then gather in the center of the chamber. Glimmer takes Adora’s hand, and Adora takes Perfuma’s, and soon they’re all standing in a circle holding hands.</p>
<p>“Uh, is this the part where we just...believe in ourselves really hard?” Mermista asks. She’s biting her lip, a sheen of sweat on her brow.</p>
<p>“I don’t experience our usual bond in terms of conscious believing,” Perfuma says, “so much as the unconscious act of trusting each other in that belief.” She’s shaking so hard that Adora’s whole arm is vibrating along with her.</p>
<p>“Okay, I didn’t understand that at all,” Scorpia says. She’s standing tall, and though her shoulders are tight, she looks more confident than Adora is used to seeing her. “But I know our bond is strong. We used to be enemies, but now, when I fight side by side with all of you, I feel totally at ease with your presence. I can sense you around me in this comforting haze.”</p>
<p>“Well,” Frosta hedges. “That’s good. But this isn’t a battle.”</p>
<p>“We can try to capture that same feeling?” Glimmer suggests. If Adora wasn’t holding her hand, she wouldn’t notice that Glimmer, too, is shaking.</p>
<p>The Princesses all look at Adora. “Uh,” she says.</p>
<p>“Is that what it felt like to disconnect from your Runestone, Adora?” Perfuma looks unconvinced. “Like...you were relying on our bond?”</p>
<p>“Um,” Adora says.</p>
<p>“But I tried to feel that when I <em>connected</em> with my Runestone,” Scorpia points out. “Isn’t this the opposite of that?”</p>
<p>“You said it felt like coming home,” Frosta says. She looks at Adora. “So should we try to...run <em>away</em> from home?”</p>
<p>“I...” Adora says.</p>
<p>She’s only run away from home once.</p>
<p>
  <em>I just need to get another look, it feels...important, somehow.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Seriously, did you just immediately get captured right after you snuck out?</em>
</p>
<p>“Or we could try running away from, like, the concept of power?” Mermista tries.</p>
<p>
  <em>Not even She-Ra can take out an army of Horde soldiers all on her own.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Then what good is she?</em>
</p>
<p>“What went through your head when you broke the connection?” Frosta asks. “What was it that finally made it snap?”</p>
<p>
  <em>I never wanted to leave you.</em>
</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Adora blurts, tearing her hands away and taking a step back. “I’m sorry, I don’t – understand how I did it, I –”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Scorpia says, placating. She smiles at Adora. “I was scared, when I left the Fright Zone to come find you guys. And when I connected with my Runestone, and when the Heart activated, and...it’s okay to be scared.”</p>
<p>“That’s it!” Glimmer exclaims. “We’re <em>scared</em>. <em>Feel</em> it.”</p>
<p>Perfuma balks. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Because we’re allowed to!” Glimmer says, a gleam in her eye. “This is <em>terrifying</em>, and no one can tell us otherwise! But we have each other.” She reaches out to Adora, holding out her hand again. “Feel that <em>more</em>.”</p>
<p>Adora shakes her head. “I don’t know if I can lead you,” she admits.</p>
<p>Glimmer smiles at her, wiggles her fingers. “Then just be with us.” Over her shoulder, the Princesses all nod – all terrified, all determined. Adora reaches out her hand.</p>
<p>“Okay,” she says, and wraps her fingers around Glimmer’s.</p>
<p>“Okay, Glimmer repeats, addressing them all. “Let’s do this.”</p>
<p>The Princesses all close their eyes. Adora keeps hers open. Closing her eyes in the midst of battle is something she was trained never to do unless she’s plunged into darkness, and hopefully they won’t be. Perfuma’s frowning, Mermista’s scowling, Frosta has this eerie look of focus...Glimmer’s straining. The air around her feels like it does when she’s about to disappear, like she’s reaching for her magic. But nothing happens.</p>
<p>Will Adora even know when it happens? Will she feel it?</p>
<p>“Scorpia?” Glimmer prompts. “Take us through this some more. What else does connecting feel like? What do we have to run away from?”</p>
<p>“Uh...” Scorpia stammers. “O-ok. Like. Hmm. That feeling of being safe. Coming home. Getting wrapped in a big hug. Like there’s a current connecting you to the very sky. Or I guess ocean, or, or moon, or flowers, or whatever an ice crystal is made of.”</p>
<p>“I feel it,” Frosta says immediately.</p>
<p>Perfuma nods, tightly. Mermista’s still scowling.</p>
<p>“Right,” Glimmer says. “Now we have to let it go.”</p>
<p>Mermista spasms. Perfuma sobs.</p>
<p>“Or!” Scorpia exclaims, “What if we transferred that feeling to each other? That’s what we agreed on, right? To have each other’s backs. To have faith in each other. We don’t need the Runestones anymore. They don’t define us. We can build a home without them. You already have!”</p>
<p>There’s a thunderous boom, and the whole castle shakes. The Princesses grip each other tight just to stay standing, but none of them opens their eyes. Adora can’t tell if the shaking continues, or if that’s just Perfuma and Glimmer on either side of her.</p>
<p>“Adora?” Glimmer gasps.</p>
<p>“I – yes, it’s working,” Adora says, even though she has no idea if that’s what’s happening. “You can do it, keep going.”</p>
<p>“It’s <em>not</em> working,” Mermista grunts. “I can’t – it won’t let me go.”</p>
<p>“It’s gripping me!” Frosta cries. “I can’t control it!”</p>
<p>“Adora!” someone calls again.</p>
<p>
  <em>The ground falling out from beneath her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>A hand, reaching out to catch her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Go must let go.</em>
</p>
<p>Tears fall from Adora’s eyes, and she finally shuts them. “You <em>can’t</em> control it. You have to let go.”</p>
<p>“I can’t!” Frosta repeats.</p>
<p>“It’s too strong!” Mermista wails. “I don’t know what will happen if I tear myself away!”</p>
<p>“You can’t know!” Adora shouts over the wind. “You have to let go anyway!”</p>
<p>“I’ll catch you!” Scorpia promises, and Adora opens her eyes to see Scorpia’s teeth bared and her eyes glowing red. All of the Princesses are glowing, and all of the lights in the castle are out. Adora can hear the wind outside blowing, the floor shaking, the thunder getting closer.</p>
<p>Perfuma gasps, eyes shut tight. “We’ll catch each other!” she cries, and drops Adora’s hand.</p>
<p>The castle rocks like a boat at sea. Perfuma’s eyes stop glowing. She sags, body going limp, and falls.</p>
<p>Adora lunges for her. Catches her around the shoulders as they fall to the ground.</p>
<p>There’s a sound like metal tearing, and then Scorpia’s knees hit the ground, too. Then Glimmer’s. She falls onto her palms and pants as the floor continues to sway.</p>
<p>“Argh,” Mermista groans. “Come <em>on</em>!” And then she lurches to the ground. With a scream like she’s been stabbed, Frosta follows suit.</p>
<p>The wind roars from outside, air filling a void, and then everything falls into ringing silence.</p>
<p>The Princesses sit there, panting, only barely visible in the dark. There’s no glowing. No magic. The air tastes like static and ozone.</p>
<p>“Did we do it?” Glimmer asks, close to Adora’s ear.</p>
<p>Adora tries to feel something, some difference. She feels nothing. She-Ra’s connection was already gone. “Does it feel like you did it?” Adora asks, and her voice comes out sounding relieved.</p>
<p>“I feel...clean,” Scorpia says, in awe.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if I like it,” Mermista says.</p>
<p>“Me neither,” Perfuma says, pushing herself out of Adora’s lap.</p>
<p>There’s a rush of fabric, and then Frosta crashes into Adora, flinging her arms around her. “Thank you,” she whispers into Adora’s stomach, hacking sobs shaking her whole body. “<em>Thank you</em>.”</p>
<p>Adora looks around at all the Princesses, her eyes adjusting enough to see the shine in their eyes as they look around at each other, smiles like new snow.</p>
<p>Adora wraps her arms around Frosta, pulling her in close. “Thank <em>you</em>,” she says, and feels, for the first time in her life, like she can allow herself to stay like this, on the floor, a while longer.</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>Glimmer’s the one who gets up to turn the lights back on. The council room looks entirely too normal in the familiar light. “I have to go check on Brightmoon’s forces,” Glimmer says.</p>
<p>“I –” Mermista shakes her head. “I don’t think I’m in any shape to fight.”</p>
<p>“That’s okay,” Glimmer says. “Not having your powers...it’s hard to adjust to. You rest up here. I’ll let you know if we need reinforcements.”</p>
<p>“I’ll come with you,” Scorpia offers. “I can’t say I feel good, but I’m used to not having powers. I’ll be okay.”</p>
<p>Adora gets to her feet. “I should come, too.”</p>
<p>Glimmer gives her a small smile, then goes to the war table, pushed to the side of the room. She picks up a tracker pad and walks over to Adora, holding it out to her. “You should stay,” she says. “In case Catra, Entrapta, or Double Trouble comm in.”</p>
<p>“You might need my help,” Adora protests, but her hands reach out and close around the tracker pad, fingers clasping it hard enough to bruise.</p>
<p>Glimmer shakes her head. “Helping isn’t always fighting, Adora.” She nods her head towards the others. Mermista, Perfuma, and Frosta are all still sitting on the floor. “Okay,” Adora says. She looks down at the tracker pad, at the little dot in the corner that indicates it’s picking up a signal from Mara’s ship. She swallows. “Thank you.” Glimmer just squeezes her arm.</p>
<p>As Glimmer and Scorpia leave, Adora hauls the war table back into the center of the room. Her legs feel wobbly, so she leans against it, staring down at its holo-map of Brightmoon and clutching the tracker pad beneath her fingers. Eventually, Mermista gets up and sits on the table, arms crossed, and Perfuma crawls to sit under it, knees brought up to her chest and chin on her knees. Frosta goes into a battle-stance, arms out and brows furrowed, concentrating on the space between her hands. When nothing happens, tears gather in her eyes.</p>
<p>“You’ll get it eventually,” Perfuma says from the floor.</p>
<p>Frosta’s arms drop. “You don’t know that.”</p>
<p>“No,” Perfuma admits. “I guess I don’t.” She holds her hand out, palm up, and Frosta takes it, going to sit beside her.</p>
<p>Adora can’t sit. She waits at the war table, nails digging into its surface but leaving no mark. Perfuma and Frosta lean into each other, Perfuma’s fingers combing through Frosta’s hair. Mermista starts playing with the holo-maps, checking over the Rebels’ positions in each kingdom, pausing at Salineas to stare at the ruined Sea Gate. Adora wants to say something, but her teeth are clenched so hard her jaw hurts.</p>
<p>The Princesses rouse when the door opens and Glimmer and Scorpia return. “Our forces are doing well,” Glimmer announces. “There are some bandits who have noticed that the Moonstone has gone out, but that freak weather seems to have damaged a lot of their crafts. The General isn’t having too much trouble fending them off.”</p>
<p>Perfuma exhales noisily. “Well, that’s something. For now.”</p>
<p>“Any news from Catra and Entrapta?” Scorpia asks.</p>
<p>Everyone looks at Adora. Adora curls her fingernails into the meat of her palms and says nothing.</p>
<p>“Not yet,” Mermista supplies.</p>
<p>Glimmer places one of her hands over one of Adora’s on the table, and Adora’s chest constricts, pushing the air out of her lungs. She keeps her head down and her fists curled.</p>
<p>And then Glimmer doubles over, gasping. She glows.</p>
<p>“Glimmer!” Adora yells, and the others scramble to their feet.</p>
<p>Glimmer puts a hand out to wave them off, breathing heavily, sparkles coming off her like firecrackers. Adora hovers, not breathing at all, but then Glimmer straightens up, staring at her hands as the glow fades. “My powers!” she laughs, brittle, but her smile is real. She holds out a fists – the air around it shimmers pink for a second, then sputters out.</p>
<p>“Well,” Glimmer sighs. “It’s something.”</p>
<p>“If your powers are back –” Frosta starts.</p>
<p>“Then Double Trouble broke Horde Prime’s containment chamber!” Scorpia exclaims. She lunges for the tracker pad. Adora yanks it away.</p>
<p>“Don’t!” Glimmer exclaims. “We can’t risk alerting anyone on Horde Prime’s ship! We’ll just have to wait for them to check in.”</p>
<p>Scorpia glares at the tracker pad as though she can force a transmission to come in through strength of will. Adora cradles the pad close and stares at the dot in its corner. She can’t feel her legs.</p>
<p>Chairs are brought back around the table, the Princesses settling in, but Adora remains standing. Time is impossible to tell, somehow, despite the fact that there is a clock on the tracker pad that Adora is staring at. She knows, in her brain, that the seconds are passing, being counted, but she can’t see it, can only see the unchanging dot right next to –</p>
<p>“Your Majesty!” The General crashes through the doors. “Mara’s ship has been sighted! It’s coming in for a landing.”</p>
<p>Adora’s heart stops.</p>
<p>“Where?” Glimmer demands, heading for the doors.</p>
<p>“The lake,” the General responds. “There’s a lot of smoke – I think they’re crashing. Spinnerella and Netossa –”</p>
<p>Adora <em>runs</em>.</p>
<p>Past Glimmer, past the guards, through the halls, out onto the bridge. The Moonstone has fallen onto its pedestal, which is cracked badly down the middle. The sky is brightening with the first light of dawn. And on the horizon, blinking blue and billowing smoke, getting larger, <em>fast</em>, is a ship –</p>
<p>Adora takes the stairs down to the lake three at a time.</p>
<p>She hears shouts from the water – “get back!”, “retreat!” – sees a large glowing net cast across half the lake, feels the wind rise around her –</p>
<p>Everything goes dark again as Adora reaches the ground. She looks up to see Mara’s ship, missing an engine, throwing its shadow onto the lake and falling from the sky like a missile.</p>
<p>She pelts towards the shore, but someone catches her around the middle.</p>
<p>“Adora!” they yell, pulling her back.</p>
<p>She fights. Ropes snap around her, pulling her up short. It’s Bow.</p>
<p>“Adora, we have to stay back!”</p>
<p>A sonic boom breaks over them – Bow pushes Adora to the ground – a gigantic wave surges from the lake but wobbles sideways, lurching into the Woods – Mermista, up on the bridge, arms in the air – smaller waves crash into the shore – Mara’s ship bobs to the surface, caught in the net, listing sideways.</p>
<p>Adora heaves herself up, shaking. Bow slides off of her. Rebellion forces are converging on the lake, sending out rescue skiffs. Adora’s ears are ringing. She pulls weakly at the ropes tying her arms to her waist.</p>
<p>Bow takes out a knife. “Slowly,” he tells her. She nods, and he and cuts the ropes off.</p>
<p>Adroa gets to her feet and stumbles to the shoreline, unable to feel her feet. She stands at the edge of the lake, trembling on the verge of the water, and watches the crews on the skiffs pull people out of the ship.</p>
<p>Sea Hawk is at the tiller of the first skiff to make it back to shore. “General,” he says, and Adora realizes the General is behind her. “We have a prisoner for you. He surrendered himself willingly.”</p>
<p>And Entrapta helps Hordak off the boat, Emily rolling out after them.</p>
<p>The General nods, but does not lower her weapon. “Hordak. Come with us.”</p>
<p>Hordak nods back, and a guard of soldiers come around him and begin escorting him up to the castle. Entrapta says something else, but Adora wanders down the shore, craning to see the next skiff as it approaches.</p>
<p>When it slides up on shore, it’s Double Trouble who jumps out, steadying the boat and extending a hand back over the rail. “Come now, darling, accepting a bit of help won’t kill you,” they say, and a clawed hand reaches out to grip theirs.</p>
<p>Adora hears splashing, finds herself right next to the boat as Catra climbs off. Catra’s ears prick towards her, and then she looks up, letting go of Double Trouble’s hand. She’s favoring her left side, and the sleeve of her jumpsuit is torn, but she’s whole and she’s – <em>here</em> –</p>
<p>
  <em>I’ll come back.</em>
</p>
<p>Adora staggers forward. “<em>Catra</em>,” she says, and pitches into her, landing with her arms around her.</p>
<p>Catra catches her, one of her hands settling lightly across Adora’s shoulder. “Hey, Adora.”</p>
<p>Adora shudders, buries her face in Catra’s shoulder. Catra smells like smoke and salt water and <em>Catra</em>, and the feeling comes back into Adora’s legs all at once, leaving her cold. Catra shifts against her, wincing, and Adora pulls back. “What –”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Catra says, lifting her right arm. It was hard to see through her sleeve, but there’s a burn there, dark and angry red beneath a thin layer of first-aid salve.</p>
<p>“Catra,” Adora starts, reaching out.</p>
<p>“Well don’t touch it!” Catra screeches, swatting her away. “Honestly, Adora.”</p>
<p>“We need to get you to a medic,” Adora says.</p>
<p>Catra lifts an eyebrow. “Don’t you have magic healing powers?”</p>
<p>“She-Ra had magic healing powers,” Adora corrects.</p>
<p>Catra’s head tilts and she frowns. “Same difference,” she says, like she believes it, like she’s taken it for granted all this time.</p>
<p>Adora’s fingers hover over Catra’s arm. “Who –” she chokes.</p>
<p>“Does it matter?”</p>
<p>“Of course it <em>matters</em>!” Adora growls. “Was it –” she glances up towards the castle. “Hordak –”</p>
<p>“No,” Catra says. “Not this time.”</p>
<p>Adora’s throat closes, and she reaches out to Catra again, curling a hand around her good arm. “You saved him,” she croaks.</p>
<p>Catra’s face twists, and she looks down. “I just – didn’t want to be like him. Anymore. I wanted to be like Entrapta instead. Do what she would do.”</p>
<p>“Well,” Adora says, struggling. Catra’s arm is warm against her palm – Catra’s always been so warm. “You did. You are.”</p>
<p>Catra tsks, her gaze skirting over Adora’s face and then away across the lake. “It’s not enough.”</p>
<p>“It’s a start.”</p>
<p>“The start of <em>what</em>?” Catra snaps, but she doesn’t shrug Adora off.</p>
<p>“Of whatever you want!” Adora says. She touches her fingers to Catra’s chin and nudges Catra’s face towards her. “What <em>do</em> you want?”</p>
<p>Catra’s gaze lands on her, startled, flies away – lands back on Adora to roost. Blinks, slow and deliberate. Adora can feel her heartbeat in her palms. Then Catra frowns. “Are you <em>blushing</em>?”</p>
<p>“No,” Adora responds, knee-jerk. Swallows. “Yes,” she confesses.</p>
<p>And Catra stares at her, eyes wide and round like Adora’s finally surprised her.</p>
<p>“I mean, nothing’s fixed,” Adora hurries on.</p>
<p>“I know that,” Catra says, but she keeps looking at Adora.</p>
<p>“You still have a lot to make up for if you want to help everyone you hurt.”</p>
<p>Catra’s chin lifts in challenge, still in Adora’s grip. “You ever known me to back down?”</p>
<p>“But we could do that together,” Adora says, “is my point.”</p>
<p>Catra bites her lip. Does look away, now. “You don’t have to do that.”</p>
<p>Adora huffs. “Well maybe that’s what <em>I</em> want! Maybe I’m tired of not being on the same team!”</p>
<p>“I’m not a good teammate, Adora,” Catra says, gritting her teeth. “I don’t even know what that <em>is</em>, right now.”</p>
<p>“You can learn. It doesn’t have to come right away.”</p>
<p>“And when am I going to do that? There’s still a whole war coming. Horde Prime’s not going to give up that easily. He’s probably readying his ground troops as we speak.”</p>
<p>“Well there we are!” Adora exclaims. “Help me beat them. Help me stop him. You saved Glimmer. You helped save Etheria. Those are choices, too, Catra. If that’s the kind of thing you’re choosing from now on, then we can figure out the rest as we go.”</p>
<p>“The rest is <em>bad</em>, Adora. I’m not – like Glimmer, a little grit with a lot of heart –”</p>
<p>“I think you are,” Adora argues. “I was there for the bad stuff, and I remember what’s under it. I have bad stuff, too. Everyone does. But if you’re not going to hurt people anymore, then I accept every part of you, bad stuff included.”</p>
<p>“<em>Why</em>?” Catra asks, voice cracking. She finally looks at Adora again. “Why do you still care? <em>How</em> could I be worth that?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Adora admits, shaking her head and pulling Catra closer. “I just do. You just are. There’s no reason.”</p>
<p>Catra chokes, shutting her eyes tight. Slowly, slowly, Adora lifts her hand to cup Catra’s cheek, the pad of her thumb skating across Catra’s fur. Catra lets her. Slowly, slowly, Adora leans in to rest their foreheads together and still, Catra lets her.</p>
<p>“I just do,” Adora repeats. The third time.</p>
<p>Catra breathes out, long and loud between them. Opens her eyes again to roam them over Adora’s face, searching for – Adora doesn’t know. She’s tried so many times to show Catra what she needed to see but maybe...maybe that’s why it never worked.</p>
<p>This time, Catra keeps looking until her eyes fill with tears. The first time she’s cried in front of Adora since they were nine. Adora rises up and presses a kiss to Catra’s forehead, right between her eyebrows. It startles a purr out of her. Catra glares as Adora pulls back, but she doesn’t stop purring, and Adora laughs, because she’d almost forgotten what it was like when Catra was happy but Catra is <em>happy</em> –</p>
<p>And blushing, all over her face, underneath her freckles and right to her hairline, and the warmth of it seeps into Adora’s chest somehow, making her skin buzz.</p>
<p>“Come on,” Adora says, taking a step towards the castle and holding out her hand.</p>
<p>Catra takes it.</p>
<p>*^*</p>
<p>[Three Months Later]</p>
<p>Catra watches the Prime soldiers in the control room below, tapping sedately at the keys to Hordak’s old mainframe. They won’t be sedate for long. Catra’s heartbeat sure isn’t. “If we wait much longer, they’ll hear that the Rebels are advancing, and they’ll delete the info,” she hisses.</p>
<p>Across from her in the old vent, Adora grits her teeth. “We wait for reinforcements,” she bites, as though she honestly believes she is not being the most hypocritical person in the world right now.</p>
<p>“Scorpia needs that intel,” Catra says, tail flicking behind her.</p>
<p>“Scorpia wants to take her kingdom back with <em>minimal causalities</em> –”</p>
<p>“Which will be so much easier if we surprise them –”</p>
<p>Adora massages her temples. “The reinforcements will be here any minute, if you just <em>wait </em>for once –”</p>
<p>“Commander!” shouts a soldier from below, running into the control room. “Report from East watch. There are –”</p>
<p>Catra jumps.</p>
<p>She lands on her feet in the middle of the room and goes right for the mainframe’s power cord. “Ah!” the commander exclaims, taking a step away from the screen as it goes blank. Something falls behind him and he turns around – there’s Adora, spear in hand, standing over the crumpled forms of the reporting solider and another one. The commander backs away from her, and Catra swipes his legs out from under him, pinning him to the ground before lashing her whip out at the other two technicians, throwing them against the consol, where they land in a heap.</p>
<p>“See?” she grins up at Adora. “The element of surprise.”</p>
<p>Adora’s eye twitches.</p>
<p>An alarm blares – the exact same grating red-alert blare that Hordak used to have, ugh – and Adora grabs Catra’s wrist, pulling her out the door and into a run. “I don’t suppose you have any idea how else we can get the information?” she snipes.</p>
<p>“As long as the consol is down, they can’t delete it,” Catra says, keeping pace with her. “Once Entrapta’s here, she can –”</p>
<p>“Oh, <em>now</em> you think reinforcements are a good idea.”</p>
<p>They skid into a side hallway, and Catra yanks Adora through a door.</p>
<p>“What –”</p>
<p>“Shortcut,” Catra whispers, and leads her through the dark passage until they get back to a main corridor.</p>
<p>“This is where the Black Garnet Chamber is!” Adora accuses.</p>
<p>“Yep,” Catra says, and presses the badge on her chest. A locator. The reinforcements will converge on their position. She smirks at Adora. “Gotta go for the heart.”</p>
<p>Adora groans but follows her into the chamber. The Black Garnet glowing eerily, hooked back up to what’s left of Entrapta’s cable system, but otherwise the room is completely changed. The lights are white instead of green, and everything looks polished, pristine. Catra’s stomach rolls as she takes in the familiar fan-pattern of a bank of computer screens. “Fuck,” she hisses. “Prime himself has been here.”</p>
<p>Adora pales. “Is he here now?”</p>
<p>“And how would I –”</p>
<p>“He’s not!” Entrapta’s face appears on all the screens. Catra jumps a foot in the air. “I sent him to the Crystal Palace on a wild goose chase, since there’s nothing there anymore!” Entrapta beams.</p>
<p>“Oh good....” Adora wheezes, clutching her spear in one hand and her chest in the other. “How convenient....”</p>
<p>“Where’s Scorpia?” Catra asks.</p>
<p>“Oh, she’s already marching her troops into the Fright Zone,” Entrapta says. “Wait, is it still the Fright Zone? What was the Magicorpion kingdom called again?”</p>
<p>Adora slides a hand down her face. “Why can we never stick to the plan,” she mumbles.</p>
<p>“Well, Prime caught us a bit by surprise, so we had to move along faster than we planned. But since Catra’s locator just got me close enough access to hack into the Black Garnet room, I figure there’s no time like the present!” Her fingers fly across her own control panel, and there’s a pneumatic hiss behind them. Catra whips around to see the cables scaling the Black Garnet disconnecting one by one and sliding to the floor. Another alarm goes off.</p>
<p>“That’s one way to do it,” Catra says.</p>
<p>“Okay, but if reinforcements aren’t coming, we need to get out of here,” Adora urges.</p>
<p>“Does a whole army count as reinforcements?” Entrapta asks.</p>
<p>“They won’t get here before we’re overrun by Horde soldiers,” Adora points out.</p>
<p>“Oh, well, in that case –”</p>
<p>“In that case you might want to think of something better,” comes a voice, and a Horde clones steps out of the shadows. “Good gracious, the Rebel forces really <em>are</em> a disaster, aren’t they?”</p>
<p>Adora drops into a fighting stance, spear aimed at the Horde clone, but Catra just scoffs. “Not the time, Double Trouble.”</p>
<p>The Horde clone smirks, tapping their chin. “Sorry, darling, couldn’t resist. But your would-be paramour is correct – it’s time to run. Ready?”</p>
<p>Catra twitches but holds her arms out. Double Trouble ties her hands loosely together in front of her, then does the same for Adora, who glares at them the whole time. “I hate this plan,” she says, but she follows Catra and Double Trouble out of the Black Garnet Chamber and towards the East Gate.</p>
<p>“Oh this is improvisation, sweetheart, so look sharp,” Double Trouble warns. They march Catra and Adora in front of them like a warden until they’re stopped by the Horde clone on guard.</p>
<p>“More Rebel insurgents?” the guard says. “Why aren’t they in the prison cells?”</p>
<p>“They’re needed for questioning by the captain on watch. Something about an attack tomorrow? The captain wants to know what to look out for.” Double Trouble’s voice is monotone, blank, a perfect impersonation of a Horde clone, but the problem is, the Horde clones are brainwashed but they’re not stupid.</p>
<p>“So why doesn’t he come and question them lat –” the guard begins, and Catra leaps forward, snatching his tazer and throwing it to Double Trouble, then jumping over him and running into the yard, shaking off her bindings. There’s another Horde clone parking a skiff by the wall, and she grabs his arm, twisting it around and kicking him in the back. He goes flying, just as Adora and Double Trouble catch up to her.</p>
<p>“Is this really going to be fast enough to get us out of here?” Double Trouble asks as they scramble on board.</p>
<p>“It will with Catra driving it,” Adora huffs, but she takes up a position at the front of the skiff as Catra grabs the tiller.</p>
<p>Catra yanks on the tiller, gunning the skiff down the canyon. Another skiff tries to head them off, but as it comes up their starboard side Adora thrusts her spear into its hull and rips its metal plating off, sending it careening towards the canyon wall.</p>
<p>“Hold tight!” Catra yells, and steers them towards a moderate incline as something explodes behind them. “We’re goin’ up!”</p>
<p>^*^</p>
<p>They make it to the top of the cliff, and Double Trouble only throws up a little. Catra’s heartbeat starts to slow down.</p>
<p>From up here the three of them can see Scorpia’s forces advancing on the Fright Zone’s in the canyon below, banners waving and canons firing. Scorpia’s lightening power zaps through the Horde’s troops, dropping them like flies and casting everything into red shadow while her own soldiers seize the Horde’s defense weapons. Scorpia never electrocutes anyone hard enough to kill them, but the voltage does start a few fires as it connects with the various pieces of Horde tech.</p>
<p>Catra watches the fires burn with something of a fire in her own gut, but – different from before, when she was the one setting them.</p>
<p>
  <em>Your heart’s never been in it – has it?</em>
</p>
<p>There’s no need to stoke the flames higher, no thirst to watch them spread. Just a quiet satisfaction as she watches the Horde soldiers flee in the face of Scorpia’s might.</p>
<p>Adora sighs, long and unhappy. “It’s still awful to watch.”</p>
<p>“Oh, come on,” Catra tries. “It’s not that bad. Scorpia won’t hurt them too much. And it’s her kingdom, she can set it on fire if she wants.”</p>
<p>Adora frowns. “Why would she want to set it on fire?”</p>
<p>Catra shrugs. “To encourage sustainable slash and burn agriculture? To make an entrance?” She tilts her head. “You gotta admit, it’s quite the aesthetic.”</p>
<p>“You just like burning stuff.”</p>
<p>Catra smirks at her. “I like what I like.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah,” Adora says, rolling her eyes. “The glow of war flames. Real romantic.” She blushes as she says it, biting her lip, and Catra wonders – because lately Adora has been<em> bringing it up</em> – but they’re standing on top of a cliff in the Fright Zone –</p>
<p>“Oh look,” Double Trouble drawls, examining their nails with one hand and pointing towards the horizon with the other. “A sunset.”</p>
<p>Adora’s head jerks towards it. It’s a deep orange, and it makes her hair glow as though the fires are much closer. Slowly, she sets her mouth into a smirk, and turns to stare Catra dead in the eye – a challenge.</p>
<p>And Catra’s heart speeds right back up again, thumping hard against her ribs even as she lifts a mocking eyebrow – an acceptance.</p>
<p>Adora squares her shoulders and marches forward, head down like a bull, coming for Catra.</p>
<p>Catra lets her.</p>
<p>Adora grabs Catra’s collar to yank her close, and Catra snakes an arm around Adora’s neck, smirks right back at her for that split second before Adora’s lips crash into hers.</p>
<p>Adora tastes like sweat and ozone and <em>Adora</em>, and Catra tugs at her hair, pulling it out of that stupid ponytail and threading her fingers through it as she cradles Adora’s head to pull her closer. Adora clutches at Catra’s jumpsuit like it’s personally offended her, making them stumble, and a laugh bubbles up out of Catra and into Adora’s mouth. Catra’s pretty sure they’re doing this wrong because Spinnerella and Netossa never seem to have this much trouble remaining upright, but then Adora <em>lifts her off her feet</em>, and Catra bites Adora’s lip because Adora’s mouth is warm and her chest is soft and Catra’s heart is so into this, it feels like it’s about to explode.</p>
<p>When they break apart, panting, Double Trouble’s smirking at Catra from over Adora’s shoulder, but why should Catra give a shit? No one else’s opinion is worth the look Adora is giving her. Not even close.</p>
<p>“You were amazing,” Adora admits, cheeks flushed and smiling. “You’re so fast with that whip and I never would have known about that root to the Black Garnet –”</p>
<p>Sparks shoot up from Catra’s stomach into her chest, and she noses along Adora’s neck, fingers still running through Adora’s hair. “See? Nothing to worry about.”</p>
<p>Adora rests her forehead against Catra’s, laughs a little, breathless. “I’m gonna worry,” she confesses, like it’s a secret Catra hasn’t always known.</p>
<p>Catra grins. “Okay,” she allows, and Adora kisses her again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>did I do the tension right? an asexual wants to know.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for coming along on this crazy ride with me! This whole damn thing is based loosely off my headcannon that Adora lies awake at night wondering what evil schemes Catra is plotting next and also wondering if Catra’s got enough sweaters for when the weather turns cold. Like, what if Catra’s planning something dangerous and dastardly in the Northern Reach? What if Catra’s in the fricking Northern Reach and doesn’t have enough blankets???? Etc. Etc. Etc.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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